Morning:
8°c
Whatever is happening in the outside world, nothing stops the great Shanghai Expo 2010 machine rolling forward. We've just passed the 400th-day countdown and the pace is quickening. Money is being spent by the lorryload but not just on the actual exhibition. Everything must be perfect.
Expo is Shanghai's answer to the Beijing Olympics. At an estimated cost of £2.8 billion, it's no poor relation. Seventy million visitors are expected. Although their focus will be the Expo site of 5.3 square kilometres straddling the Huangpu River, Shanghai itself is really on display.
Since the countdown started last year, there has been a competition every 100 days for the performance of each Shanghai district. This is based on a "cultural" index covering environment, public behaviour and services. How does this work? It's not quite clear but poor performance is a serious career-stopper for local politicians.
Even by Shanghai standards, the infrastructure works associated with Expo are massive.
New tube lines have been created, roads widened and tunnels dug. Nothing should hinder the eager visitor from attending. Even the Bund, long home to massive traffic jams, is being given a traffic underpass for its entire length.
En route, everything must look its best for the visitor. Buildings near major roads are being painted and some given new windows. And it all has to be ready for the end of this year, even though Expo doesn't open until May.
The Chinese elements of the Expo site are rapidly reaching completion. Not so with the foreigners. Many have had to cut back on expenditure. The United States team is not clear whether it will be able to get funding at all. But Expo organisers seem fairly relaxed. A spokesman pointed out recently that they could always use the US plot for something else.
* One sector that has taken on a new lease of life, so to speak, is the funeral industry. Previously rather shy in advertising its wares, it's proving quite popular with new graduates in the current job market. Whatever you think of the product, with an ageing population there's no shortage of demand.
* It's still the 2008 statistics season. Latest figures show average monthly wages rose 13.8% to 3292 renminbi (£331). Last year included the tail-end of the wage-inflation pressure that had been pushing up manufacturing costs before the crunch. Rates this year will tell a different story.
