2022-05-03
I have happy memories of the time that I spent in Shanghai in 2004/5/6 when my then employer set up a factory in Pudong, across the river from Shanghai.
Perhaps because I was a westerner, I was always treated with respect and felt very safe, even to the point of using a bicycle to navigate my way around town, do my shopping and get to and from work (in all weathers). I well remember cycling back from a shopping trip when a crowded bus passed by with everyone shouting at me from the windows - slightly alarmed I stopped, to discover that my shopping bags had fallen of the back of the bike - I couldn't imagine any London bus passengers reacting in the same way!
On another occasion I was similarly cycling back from the shops, this time in the pouring rain, when a police motorcyclist slowed alongside and accompanied me for a while .... whilst I was pondering what might be going to happen next he announced, very carefully in only slightly halting English: "possible you buy raincoat at the convenience store"! I acknowledged with a big grin.
So the grim news that has been emanating from China about the reportedly maniacal lockdown in that city and elsewhere fills me with sadness and consternation.
Pray for them.
