The cover of The Economist's next edition is a timely reminder of two essay's I wrote last year about the OBOR Initiative and the what we have to expect from an neo-absolutist leader. Looking forward to read if The Economist has different ideas.

• China's Asia Dream
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers
  

No entry on this blog for more than half a year. I honestly was not in the mood. Too much change in front of my house and even in my house. Government regulations did not only take down much of our neighborhood as I described in my last entry from January, but also part of our apartment. We lost two of our favorite restaurants, my hairdresser, our storage room and our daughter's room was sliced down as well.

Today's visit of the old Shanghai Jiaotong University campus, which is in our neighborhood, convinced me though that there is also an undeniable upside to breakneck change. The entire campus underwent a major overhaul and both old and new buildings shine in new splendor. A completely new building was erected for the Institute of Oceanography, the law and the economics & management faculty. Despite most undergraduate students attending classes in the suburban campuses, the old campus is really worth a visit and one should be grateful for being able to use the facilities of this institution.

A good reason for a visit is the C.Y. Tung Maritime museum and the Jiaotong University museum. Plan 3-4 hours and learn about the universities history and the seafaring Chinese. You might end up wondering why Zheng He discovered the world before Columbus in 1421, but in the end it was not the Chinese who rules the oceans for the last 500 years.