I’m about to begin a rather intensive couple weeks of travel, reporting, and writing. And on top of that, roughly half that time will be spent in a location where my connectivity is going to be very limited (and possibly non-existent – don’t know yet). So,with that in  mind, Shanghai Scrap will be offline until the middle of the first week of June. Please note that I’ll be slow in answering emails during this period, especially if they’ve been sent through the blog contact form. But I will get to them.

But before I sign off! … yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of this humble blog (celebrations were muted). Sincere thanks to everyone who reads, comments, and emails. And special thanks to the blogs that continue to link to my posts – in particular Danwei, James Fallows, and Shanghaiist. The readership spikes that come off those links are undeniable; more important, each of those spikes is “sticky,” bringing new readers who continue reading. Indeed, over the last year, my readership has grown considerably – largely due to those links. So thanks, folks, for sending your audiences my way.

Finally, this post is the 527th in the brief history of Shanghai Scrap. Compared to some blogs, that’s nothing. But if, two years ago, you’d told me that I’d somehow find the time to post 527 times in 24 months – well, I probably wouldn’t have started a blog. Anyway, for those who care … the top five posts from the last year:

1. Giant UFO Over Shanghai [To this day, the #1 result for "UFO Shanghai" google searches. Shocking, really, how many people are still looking.]
2. Scrap Trader Kidnapped, Held for Ransom [The post that launched a thousand radio interviews (well, a dozen). One of my personal favorites.]
3. The US Expo 2010 Pavilion Totters [#1 comment generator of the year. Resulted in more phone calls and emails than any other post. Some not so nice.]
4. Why China’s Block of the New York Times Doesn’t Matter (as much as it once did) [#1 post for generating psychotic emails. Seriously.]
5. Big Dumb Recycling Machine [Twice per week, at least, I receive emails and comments from people wanting to purchase one of these from me. And at least 25% of the prospective buyers are Pakistani. For more on my commercially-minded Pakistani readership, see here.]

Lesson learned? UFOs are more popular than recycling machines, Expo 2010 pavilions, the New York Times, and kidnapped scrap traders. Shouldn’t surprise anyone, I guess. But nice to have everything placed in proper persepctive. Anyway, I’ll be back in early June. I may twitter a bit while out, but 140 characters will be the absolute limit. If you need a China blog fix before then, check out the fine forums listed in the blogroll to the right.

Monday afternoon, while riding back to Shanghai from Ningbo, I noticed a dark column of smoke rising in the distance. As we drove closer, it became apparent that the source of the smoke was in the middle of the highway. Traffic quickly backed up, but it didn’t stall entirely, and as we crawled forward with it, I watched as the gray column was swallowed by several ominous puffs of black smoke that – I suspect – were explosions. Still, traffic continued forward, and after five minutes I could see bright orange flames emerging from the back windows off an automobile parked on the shoulder. At 100 meters, I readied my camera, and in doing so nearly missed a tall, wan, balding man walking in the opposite direction the car with an overcoat slung over his forearm, and a briefcase in his right hand. I can’t say for sure that he was the driver, but I’m pretty sure of it: the pyrotechnics, and the man, were both on the elevated highway, with no exits for quite some distance, and no other cars were stopped in the area. In any case, he was a striking figure: nothing about him suggested that he’d just lost his car to flames. If anything, he looked like a man in search of a taxi after a particularly rough day at work. And he certainly didn’t look like someone who had left something – or someone – in that car (a cold blooded fellow if he did).

Anyway, as we approached the wreck, traffic came to a near standstill while people readied their mobile phone cameras. Then, as they – and we – drove up beside it, traffic accelerated, presumably to avoid being caught in another explosion. And that explains the slight blur to the photo, and off-center framing.

In the course of the ten minutes or so that elapsed from the time I first saw the smoke, to the image, no emergency service vehicles arrived on the scene – despite the fact that a hospital is located directly across from the accident scene (note the red cross on the other side of the fence in the photo). Beyond that, I’m having a hard time coming up with any kind of public-minded justification for this post.

A final note. The guy walking away from the burning car without a care in the world – I swear that I saw that in a movie, once. But for the life of me, I can’t remember the movie. So – first person with a satisfactory answer (as opposed to a correct one – because I’m not sure that there is a correct one) receives a download of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Burnin’ for You.” Email via the Contact Form, or just leave a comment below.

[MAY 21: Despite a valiant effort by Jen Ambrose (and two emailers), Joel Martinsen wins the Blue Öyster Cult download. Had I seen "Waiting to Exhale," the result might have been different.]