My Swedish friends like to do business in China, but often state to me that they would never want to live in such a dirty city like Shanghai. They remind me that Stockholm is so clean, they can fish for salmon in the rivers going through town! This is not possible in Shanghai obviously, the water is contaminated – although the thousands of fish floating around makes the job very easy – Especially the impact of the continuous smog levels are a reason for them to hesitate. Shanghai isn’t a particular clean city; neither would I say that about Seoul, but it isn’t as bad as most people think. Yes, every week or so, I wake up and look at a spooky city with huge buildings hiding inside the fog. Honestly, the stars are often visible at night and we have blue skies here quite often too! Lastly, compared to Stockholm the temperatures are much better! Take into account that it almost never rains here, contributing to these dust levels.
There is a government website that publishes the smog levels in Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, so I’ve taken the liberty to extract one decade of data, and put that into a graph. I’ve put a trend line to see what the numbers are averaging on. Conclusion: average Shanghai smog levels are going down! Or the measurement machine is being put further and further out of town ;-)
Spil Games Asia honcho with some ROK and PRC experience. Check out this blog for your daily photo feast and some background stories from Asia. 
6 Comments on "Shanghai fog levels going down?"
Joop, I’d like to see these numbers compared to a non-partisan measuring device/site. There’s just too much rhetoric, as you know, going into these figures. Does the SHA gov’t have an interest in demonstrating a distinct downward trend? ::: We all know the answer to that. :::
Yet the idea of fishing for salmon in the Stockholm dark during the winter season bearing a torch is an appealing date with your significant other. Bring along the schnapps?
–ADM
ps I just realized the cleverness of your URL — Jump In?
@adam that said, there is absolutely no way of telling it’s getting worse or less. Perhaps one could do a visual fog check and then create a timeline of that. :-)
With China’s green strategy, and expo, it will be better for sure! … right?
[joop.in] Shanghai fog levels going down? http://tinyurl.com/ycrh3ge
I like the sound of that! I’ll be able to compare the way things were in November to the way they’ll be in March, say, when I’m set to be back. By then, the authorities will have well-seeded the clouds, and cars will be swapping days again. But is it real, or is it an illusion? :-)
After smog post http://vl.am/WGc on @shanghaiist, they've lnkloved my Baidu story today. http://vl.am/N40 -Elaine ur blog titles make me LOL
[...] always get’s me out of bed. Shanghai experienced some smoggy days lately, reason for me to put the data from the last 10 years in a graph. Somehow, the last two days seem clearer then ever. Perhaps the factory outside [...]