12:38

I hear jackhammers distantly in the background as I drift off to that second layer of sleep that doesn’t easily arrive while construction progresses. It’s a viable metaphor for life in Shanghai these days. Before moving here, I heard that construction was a way of life. In fact, from what I can tell, it’s engrained in the culture.

Smells of sulfur, visions of smoke, breaths of fine dust, sights of newly refurbished streets and sidewalks residing alongside those being renovated – these are the palpable indications of a dynamic city in transition.

I wait for my moody heater to kick-on again so as to drown out the sound of the reformation being laid upon the highway behind our building. And I forgot to mention the time. It’s 12:38 a.m. and all is well and awake in the Eastern city that does not sleep, voluntarily or not.