Mad About Shanghai

Blue Sky Continues

The beautiful blue skies, reminiscent of Sydney skies, have continued now for over a week - its making me home sick!

There has been no pollution, no fog and no haze - nothing but clean air and blue skies since this time last week.

Where has all the pollution gone - thats what I want to know. Especially with this heat, there has been a great increase in electricity demand to power airconditioners - therefore more coal has been burned - but there is no smog! It hasn't been very windy, so where did it go?

Well, I'm not going to complain - just enjoy it. Photo was taken from the balcony this morning - looking towards Huaihai Rd over part of the old town.

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Shanghai Visability

This morning the Shanghai visability from the apartment window was really bad, couldn't see either Jinmao tower or Oriental Pearl Tower.

However, the main perpetrator was fog this morning and not all smog.

This is what it looks like on a clear day.

Sunday 13th Visability Index

Another clear night with some more rain has meant that visability is still good today. The wind has dropped, so I think that we will start to get a build up again tomorrw.

The Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index for today is - `Colours'.

The temperature is currently 21 degrees.

Yesterdays official API was 48. Equal to Friday's extremely low figure.

Saturday 12th Visability Index

After another night of some rain and wind, we woke up to a beautiful clear, sunny day. The city of Shanghai looks truely spectacular when the air is clear.

For the first time since I can remember, I can saw that I can count the tiles on the balls. So Saturday the 12th of November gets my first `Crystal' rating.

For more information on the Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index.

Friday's official API was 48! The lowest since I have been tracking it. A very fresh, breathable day in Shanghai.

Friday 11th Visability Index

I'm afraid that I missed yesterday - but the visibility was rated - Silhouette.

Today's visibility rating is - `What Tower?'
But this is more due to the fact that it is rainy and we have heavy cloud.

Temperature is about 19 degrees, it is slightly breezy and still raining.

Last night we had a nice walk, the air was crystal clear and clean. The combination of the wind and the rain had really cleaned up the air nice. We walked down to Xintiandi and walked through the park by lake. We both inhaled deep breathes all the way to the bottom of lungs without fear and without feeling like we had our mouths wrapped around an exhaust pipe. It was very enjoyable, and for that reason I have decided I like it when it rains here in Shanghai.

Learn more about the Oriental Pearl Tower Visibility Index.

Yesterday's official API was 73.

________________________________________________________________________

For those who are looking for airline jobs, the second best option is that of china airlines. The first best one of course is sun country airlines. The plus point is the lack of airline restrictions.

Check out the jobs!
__________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday 9th November Visability

Today the Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index is - `Building'

Unlike most days though, this rating is not due completely to pollution, but to the cloud and occasional rainfall. It is a bit breezy outside, so a lot of the pollution has been blown away.

Temperature is about 22 degrees.

Learn more about the Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index.

Yesterdays official API was 146.

Tuesday 8th November Visability

Tuesday 8th November.

Today the Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index is - `Silhouette'.

Learn more about the Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index

Yesterday's official API was 179.

Introduction to the Oriental Pearl Tower Visability Index

Since we have such a good view of `THE' landmark of Shanghai, the Oriental Pearl Tower, and we often see it in different ways due to the air pollution, I thought that I would introduce an air pollution index without the meaningless numbers.

Reading the API stats (Air Pollution) is about as useful to the average person in Shanghai as driving a Ferrari, but understanding how the air quality is on a particular day is all based on visibility and dust. So from here, everyday I will be posting the Oriental Pearl Tower Visibility Index. It will describe in everyday terminology how good or bad the air quality is based on how well we can see the Oriental Pearl Tower from our window. All the photos that are posted with it are taken on a Pentax Optio S5i and will be taken about the same time (9am each morning) and will be taken roughly at the same spot with a very wide field of view.

There are currently 5 categories of rating running from perfectly clear down to zero visibility. They are:

1. Crystal - I can even count the tiles on the balls!
2. Colours - I can see the pink in colour in the balls.
3. Building - I can make out the whole tower, but its not too clear.
4. Silhouette - I can make out the silhouette or the outline of the tower but nothing is clear.
5. What Tower - I can't see a freakin thing!

As a bench mark, below are some photos of the ratings `Colours' and `What Tower' so you can get an idea of how they are quite different.

I hope that this will serve as an easier way to get a clear picture (pardon the pun) on what the air pollution is really like - and if you are a real numbers geek here is how they calculate the official API.

These 2 are from the rating `Colours'

These 2 are from the rating `What Tower'

Click on images to see full size.

________________________________________________________________________

For those who are looking for airline jobs, the second best option is that of china airlines. The first best one of course is sun country airlines. The plus point is the lack of airline restrictions.

Check out the jobs!
__________________________________________________________________________