Cody has an expression that new technology should feel like magic - and users of Claude right now probably feel like magicians.  

I was in Shanghai last week and the maglev train (pictured below) which connects Pudong airport (PVG) to downtown Shanghai feels a bit like magic.  Running at 300km/h, it was so fast over 30km that it was almost over before it began - in about 8-10 mins - and it does mean that there is no excuse to ever miss a flight from Shanghai!

To my hosts, I was slightly embarrassed to admit that it was my first trip to Shanghai in over 20 years.   But in my limited defence, I have made the most of the new visa-free travel regime to Mainland China for British passport holders.  In the last 12 months, I have visited Beijing, Shenzhen - the tech capital a stone's throw from Hong Kong, Hangzhou - another tech capital, and Chongqing - the world's largest city that you have probably never heard of, at 32m people with 300,000 elevators!  My guide's family there was in the elevator maintenance business, which we concluded was probably one of history's wiser calls.

Shanghai has changed a lot in 20 years; for one thing I could see it this time.  The last time I was there, I remember it being shrouded in smog, which says a lot about the clean air policies that the Chinese have adopted over the years.  The beautiful nighttime view below is of the Huangpu river looking at the famous Oriental Pearl TV tower from the IFC/Lujiazui side.  

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