Despite last week’s issuance of muddled terrorist warnings for China (and Hong Kong, too, for that matter) I have come to Shanghai this week. I am speaking at a large HR conference and also dropping in on our Shanghai office.

I started this blog in the Immigration Hall of the Shanghai International Airport. I have been here for one hour and thirty minutes. The place is incredibly disorganized. When we started there were roughly 100 in my line. There is one line for each letter of the alphabet… do the math, there were (and still are with more passengers arriving behind us) 2600 people in this room.

I was in one of those annoying scenes when everyone jockeyed to get ahead in their line. People were jumping back and forth into each others lines. The hall was so crowded, it was hard to argue from one person to the next, "hey, get back in your line," because they would say, "that’s not my line, THIS is my line."

After over AN HOUR and fifteen minutes, I finally went back to the END of another line because the Immigration officer in my first line was slow as molasses. The officer in the second line processed about 40 people in twenty minutes and I finally left my fellow passengers behind. No idea how he did that but I was finally done!

Of course, by then our bags were long gone. Other flights had arrived and signage changed to handle their cargo. I searched all the baggage belts to no avail and finally stopped in the middle of the chaos to figure out who I should speak to about my bag. Just then one of those annoying sirens discharged behind me, indicating a belt was about to stop. Irritated, I turned to glare at the belt, as if my disapproving look would make the belt any quieter. "Please, let’s use our INSIDE siren, honestly!" But then I turned to discover the offending belt had just parked my bag a meter away from me in an apparent peace offering.

I cleared Customs to find ten times the chaos in the airport. China is on fire with growth and activity, especially Shanghai, and everywhere one turns is witness to that fact. I eventually found the hotel car and am currently en route to my hotel. Alas, though, I have been defeated. Yet another late flight (Saturday I took a day trip to Bangkok for a business meeting – left at 6 AM and returned at 1 AM) and the airport delays, I have missed my function. The night before the conference (tonight) there is a dinner and keynote address. I am supposed to be at the speaker’s table. That’s not going to happen now. Ah well.

On the surface Shanghai is looking more and more like a scene from a science fiction movie. Lights and architecture are strategically juxtaposed to create a highly futuristic picture. In the 1920s Shanghai was one of the planet’s top metropolises. Born again the city is rapidly winning back it’s buzzy, happening image.

But lurking beneath the surface there remains a disorganized system that lacks horsepower. Economists know this all too well. Anyone who takes a gander at Southern China’s economic stats will see that Shanghai’s contribution is minute compared to the Pearl River Delta. And even the statistics that dwarf Shanghai are in turn dwarfed by Hong Kong’s twelve cylinder, highly developed economic and legal engine. Yes, Shanghai sure looks sexy, but it will still take years to catch-up to the economic and legal muscle Hong Kong boasts.

In the meantime it is a great city to visit as long as one keeps their temper in check.

Grrrr…