It is better not to be in Shanghai during a heat wave. I was there during the first week in September when a heat wave struck, the hottest September day in 48 years: 87 degrees at night and as humid as a steam bath. Schools closed, as did many museums, which lacked air-conditioning. In one small museum, the former residence of Zhou Enlai, I was followed from room to room by an attendant with an electric fan. At night, in the old neighborhoods of Nantao, or what used to be the walled Chinese City, families slept in the streets, stretched out half naked on bamboo chairs.