Next Monday I was planning to fly to Beijing in the late afternoon for a 2 day trip. However, it now turns out that President Obama will be in Shanghai on Monday and plans to fly to Beijing on Monday late afternoon for a dinner with Hu Jintao. Knowing China a little bit that likely means road closures in both Shanghai and Beijing around the time that Obama plans to travel, and delayed or cancelled flights on the Shanghai-Beijing route.

Obama (or Oba-Mao as some people started calling him here) will stay in Beijing on Tuesday and Wednesday, exactly the days that I also plan to be there. Because it seems to be more of a sightseeing trip than a political trip (he only has two meetings, for the rest he wants to see Beijing’s tourist spots and even the Great Wall), I am afraid there will be traffic control on many roads, leading to even more traffic jams than usual.

My plan was to fly back from Beijing on Wednesday night, and guess what? That’s exactly when Obama plans to fly as well. Not sure yet what I will do now. In order to avoid delays caused by the President’s visit, I will probably I take an early morning flight to Beijing on Tuesday and I might take the first flight back to Shanghai on Thursday morning. Now I just hope that the Chinese government is not planning to create as much snow fall next week as they did both last week and this week…