Chinese security, in position across Shanghai. The red light district effectively cleared out. And at local markets, popular Obama-branded merchandise is banned for now on Chinese government order.
This is the T-shirt everybody is talking about. It picks Obama wearing Chinese Communist attire, made famous by Mao Zedong. And on the back a play on words--Oba Mao.
Chinese officials are reportedly worried the shirt may offend the American president. This clothing vendor vowed he never sold them.
"We don't think it's a fitting image," he says. "we respect Obama very much."
If the papers are any indication, Chine is determined to give president Obama a warm welcome. Chinese translations of Obama books are selling well on Amazon China.
According to state media polls, the Chinese overwhelmingly favoured his election.
If you are lucky, you can take a picture with the president while he's in Shanghai. That is, if you come to Madame Tussaud's wax museum, president Obama arrived here the day he was inaugurated.
There are also statues of president Bill Clinton and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. But ironically, no sign of Chinese president Hu Jintao. From the marked White House podium, nobody seems to mind.
"We see him a lot on Chinese TV, so it's really cool to see him here. " this man says.
To many Chinese, he's not just a global celebrity, but the leader of a country with a vital and at times complicated relationship to their own.
"What's his position on trade between China and the US and on protectionism?" this man asks.
"I want to know more about the Taiwan problem and how the US is going to deal with it." another woman says.
Many questions for the man who has fascinated China who, to many, epitomizes the American dream and perhaps inspires a Chinese dream of their own.