Well, not so much whispers as thoughts. So far:

1. I like it here a lot. Much more than Japan, and about as much as Korea and Taiwan. Hong Kong I have yet to see (Friday);
2. The society here is a lot less structured than that of Japan; women are respected and chivalry is evident (door opening etc);
3. There is no open evidence of "communism" - this is my first time in a communist country unless you count a few days in East Germany in the late 80s when I was a child. Here there is evidence of good international co-operation in motor corporation ventures, fashion (which in Shanghai was pretty much the same as in London) and access to international news (although some of the BBC pages were blocked, and you can't access google). With that of course you get the bad, such as McDonalds (don't you just wish Mr and Mrs McDonald had brought up their children to be veggies so they never would have thought of burgers?) and Starbucks (although they do make nice coffee and I know i'm going to be relying on their Christmas Turkey sandwich to prevent starvation in Tokyo). But all in all, no oppression. I'm aware that I'm not seeing around 99.99% of the estimated 1 billion residents, 40% of whom live below the poverty line, but what's wrong with rose-tinted spectacles sometimes?
4. The food is nowhere near as bad as Japanese food, so I am not losing weight like I normally do here. We are staying in some of the best hotels I have ever seen, with cheap room service, which helps. Mmmmm steak and chips.

More later. Tomorrow I visit the Forbidden City, which seems contradictory but apparently now it's the "you can come in if you pay" City, which is a lot more commercial but eminently sensible if you want to attract tourists to your city for the Olympics.