Atlantic correspondent James Fallows recently moved to Shanghai, China for an indefinite stay. The December issue of the magazine features a terrific story that mixes his experiences as an expat with an analysis of where China has been and where it’s going. “I have not before been anyplace that seemed simultaneously so controlled and so out of control,” he writes. “The control is from on high—and for most people in the cities, most of the time it’s not something they bump into. What’s out of control is everything else.”

Fallows’s story, unfortunately, isn’t available online to non-subscribers—here’s a link for subscribers—but the magazine has posted an excellent slideshow. Fallows narrates, and he displays the same insight and eye for detail that makes his story so good.

“It’s hard to have a picture of a street scene in Shanghai without the standard old man wearing pajamas going down the street completely unselfconsciously,” Fallows says about one shot of a typical Shanghai street. “A bet that my wife and I have is whether by the time we leave here I will have gone out in the street in my pajamas. So far I haven’t done it.”