Since I left Mercedes-Benz back in 2002 I visited every Shanghai Auto Show, but this year I will miss it for the first time. I was in Beijing from Monday until Wednesday and this weekend I will be in Yangzhou to run the half marathon there. That combined with lots of work made it impossible to go to the show.

Since I stopped writing columns for car magazines a long time ago already, there is no real business reason to visit anyway, but I still like the atmosphere at this show. It’s so different from any other auto show in the world: sometimes I wonder whether the visitors are there mainly to look at the cars or at the models (see also some other posts on this blog about the Shanghai auto show). Next year the show will be in Beijing, maybe I will go there so I can take pictures like the one above this post!

Picture source: Shanghaiist