I spent last weekend touring the Washington National Arboretum, where a China Garden is expected to be built, and the Mormon temple in Kensington, Maryland, whose spikes seem to be piercing the sky and something that I have seen many times driving into Washington DC through Capital Beltway.

I clicked photographs of the Capitol Columns in the arboretum and the golden spikes of the temple from various angles. But something kept distracting me from admiring the beauty of structures. It was the blue sky with fluffy white clouds in the background, something common in DC but rare in Shanghai or Beijing.

Chinese visitors to the US no longer feel awed by the skyscrapers in New York City and the Metro tunnels which go so deep underground in DC; Shanghai's skyscrapers are actually taller now. Topped out last week, the 121-story, 632-meter Shanghai Tower will be the second tallest building in the world upon completion next year, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.