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A gentle snoring came from the bunk above, as the landscape flashed past at 150 km an hour. Shanghai was less than 30 minutes away. I'd woken early, a combination of excitement and the even earlier sunrise, but Ellen seemed to be immune to its rays. It took some vigorous shaking to get her to open her eyes. I'm ashamed to say that in the years that I've been in China, I've seen very little of it, so a trip like this was a great chance for me to explore more of it. The Tianjin Medical University had organized the trip for its foreign experts, and very kindly invited me to take Ellen along. Bleary eyed, we stumbled off the train, and on to a waiting bus, which whisked us off to breakfast - which luckily included coffee strong enough to wake up a herd of elephants. It was at breakfast that the green flag was first produced. At the time, it looked like such an innocent thing, just a rectangle of emerald-colored cloth - but it was soon to take on a whole new meaning. We boarded the bus again, and headed out to Zhouzhuang, billed as "the number one floating town in China". Along the way our tour guide, whose English name was Kay, entertained us with stories about Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, and the improvements they had made to Shanghai. As the bus pulled into Zhouzhuang's parking lot, Kay leapt to the front and produced the green flag. It was mounted on an extendable rod, something akin to a thick radio antenna, and we were instructed to watch it and keep up with it. | 
