“Beautiful chaos,” said the musician in the old French Club as he raised his vodka soda to toast my first evening in Shanghai. “That’s why I have to be in Shanghai right now.” I could not but agree. Give me Shanghai over Beijing any day. The following afternoon, as the Trumps had tea in the Forbidden City in the cosseting embrace of the Communist party, I was hurtling through the old French Concession on a swanky yellow and very capitalist bicycle. Ahead of me on a rival orange bike was the FT’s Asia Editor swishing through the rush hour — often taking it head on.
“一場美麗的混亂。”在我抵達上海的接風晚宴上，老上海French Club的樂手端起伏特加蘇打水敬我時這樣說道，“這就是我必須此時來上海的原因。”對于這種說法我勉強同意，但上海啥時候都要比北京強，我必須眼見為實。第二天下午，當特朗普夫婦(the Trumps)在故宮(the Forbidden City)享受中共超高接待規格的下午茶時，我則騎著時髦小黃車ofo（完全是資本主義國家的舶來品）穿梭于下班高峰時的昔日法租界(French Concession)，前面帶路的則是騎著橙色摩拜單車（ofo競爭對手）的《金融時報》亞洲版主編——他總是一馬當先。