AFTER the blues of Beijing, the touring Team America arrived in China's biggest city and received an uplifting Shanghai surprise.
A bevy of beautiful girls bearing bouquets for all the players, giant welcome banners, and the lenses of film crews and photographers formed an unexpected reception committee - all laid on by the tour sponsors, of course.
The 22 basketball giants literally stopped the traffic as they led a procession of the curious and the fascinated across the street to the team buses.
All a far cry from the disappointments of the day before. The visitors hardly made an impact on the general citizenry of the capital where the Team America v China series opened on Friday night.
That game, although televised live to a potential audience of 400 million, had received little publicity and drew a crowd of only 8,000.
But there was no lack of excitement for the organisers, with three hours to go before the first of a nine-match series between the rapidly improving China national team and the patchwork quilt Team America.