Blowing Smoke in Shanghai

NEWS FLASH! There are 1.9 billion Chinese and they all smoke! Buy PM, MO, LO and any other cigarette stock you can find. They smoke in office buildings, restaurants, stores, bathrooms. I’m getting some of those surgical masks but not to protect me from the chicken flu…to save me from second hand smoke!

Shanghai has changed so much since I was last here in 2006. Gone are the picturesque alleys with silk ties for $1.00. Prada, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton have taken their places…for twice the price and half the size (dress size…the stores themselves are 10 times as large). There are more skyscrapers than in NY! In fact, Shanghai looks like New York. I’m also surprised that in 10 years English hasn’t taken off. In Moscow, everyone speaks English…