Leaving Hangzhou

The mechanics of posting are such that I can't stretch out and talk about all this with the usual Strays POV, at least not yet.

But today's nugget starts with the high-speed train.  From an old, China-style station in Hangzhou, with that standard China approach to queuing up  - a huge flock of people trying to squeeze through one portal at once, cutting each other off without mercy - out onto a platform and into a train that is science fiction.  The Beijing-Shanghai Express.  It glides, mostly at 300 km/hr.  Three stops, I'm in Changzhou.

Out the windows... not just office buildings and high-rise apartments and factories, although they are all over the landscape.  But also housing developments, with single houses and duplexes, front and back lawns.

Later, in Changzhou, at a huge shopping mall that opened a month ago.  And among the Tommy Helfingers and Starbucks and Dairy Queens and yet another KFC - a nice Thai restaurant.  Packed with young people.

What happened to America's middle class?  It's here.