Shanghai Can Wait

That ambition to visit China—at least once, just to have done it—got quietly shelved when a photo surfaced on Reddit showing the view from a hotel room in Shanghai. Where the neighboring buildings should have been, there was instead a brown wall of particulate matter so dense it had texture. Not morning fog. Not overcast. The actual air, on an ordinary afternoon, looking like the inside of an exhaust pipe.

The AQI had hit 505 that day. Anything above 300 is classified as hazardous—you’re not supposed to be outside at all. At 505 you’re essentially inhaling a factory. And apparently this wasn’t an emergency; it was just Tuesday in a coastal industrial city. I don’t know what the threshold is for "fine, I’ll go anyway and pretend it’s fine," but I haven’t reached it yet. China stays on the list. The list stays at a comfortable distance.