China is the top of the top to roll out the welcome mat to foreign VIPs. It is a friendly country. Mr. Putin and other dignitaries were attending the SCO meetings (Shanghai Co-operation Organization) in Shanghai some days ago. You don’t want those VIPs having to face all those crowds when visiting the Bund and attending their meetings. So, Shanghai, out of respect for the guests, closed down good part of the streets, several metro stations and kindly gave our Shanghainese friends a mini “Golden Week”. A bit of unplanned five-day bonus to go away from the city, travel agencies were busy trying to ship out the citizens while the railways were trying to cope with 570,000 holiday travelers, according to China Daily. It would also guarantee not to have too much laundry drying in the open and mahjong players on the streets.
Rumors were strongly denied that Beijing was sending a team to learn from Shanghai, to prepare for 2008.