On the Tuesday night we finally made it on to the river cruise. Our batteries were poor so our pix were taken with Pip’s phone. This one was taken by a Russian couple. Another measure of the speed of change: a smartphone picture taken by a Russian couple travelling independently in China of us – a lesbian couple also travelling there without a State chaperone.

It was fun to do, but actually quite hard to manage. Shanghai badly needs some advice on catering to the non-group-organised traveller. The Bund, for example, is beautifully designed to enable freedom of movement that the authorities cannot support. Lots of signs point down escalators and stairs to the ticket hall, but are firmly closed off. It took us a good 20 minutes to find the one open door, which is actually down on the street and not signposted at all. We never thought we would miss the pavement touts of Valetta, Roma or Barcelona but they do at least give you a clue as to what is happening and how to access it!