It’s just too beautiful not to blog – Shanghai in October

It is so rare that Shanghai sees an extended period of good (let alone gorgeous) weather that I simply can't help singing about it. For the past week or so the skies have been blue - not the yes-I-can-see-through-the-haze-that-there-is-a-blue-sky-out-there-somewhere blue but true, cloudless crystal blue. The air is filled not only with the smell of dust and construction welding but also 桂花 (guihua) or osmanthus flowers that make the city actually smell clean. And the temperature is perfect - warm without humidity during the day, cool enough to need a light sweater during the evenings.

I am sitting at this very moment at Kommune Café off Taikang Road having just finished a Peking Duck salad, a perfect combination of East meets West. I figure I earned the right to sit outside for a few hours and try to get some work done; I finished a whole morning of Chinese class after all.

So if you're in Shanghai, please, skip the meeting. Skip class. Skip the seminar. Grab a seat outside and enjoy the weather. It simply won't last.