Blue skies, smilin' at us

If you happened to be a tourist in Shanghai over the past several weeks, consider yourself lucky. In our nearly four years in Shanghai, we have never seen so many consecutive blue sky days and moonlit, starry nights. Never. (Please keep in mind that we are writing this while staring at the blue sky from within our air-conditioned office. Our earlier "lucky" statement pertains only to those who can enjoy the clear skies and escape Shanghai's relentless summer heat.)

We are loving the blue skies. They make the happiest city in China even happier. They just have a way of making things seem better. When traveling through China, our perceptions of a place are often influenced heavily by the blueness of the sky -- how else can we explain not hating Lanzhou?

Maybe we are making a bigger deal out of this than necessary. One Shanghai native told us that the blue skies were "pretty normal." Maybe she was talking about Shanghai, Virginia or Shanghai, West Virginia or -- we don't know -- Shanghai, Illinois.

Normal or not, blue skies sure do get people talking in Shanghai. Bloggers blog about it. Photographers photograph them. And others just sit back and laugh, because they saw these blue sky days coming a long time ago -- namely, the Shanghai Blue Sky Law Firm, the Shanghai Blue Sky Auto Parts Company and the Shanghai Blue Sky Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd. (not sure if the last one had anything to do with the blue skies or not).

It should be noted that we aren't the only polluted Chinese city currently awash in blue. Beijing recently announced 29 blue sky days in July. It broke an eight-year record. In Shanghai, at least, it looks like the blue skies will continue unabated for the immediate future.

Photo by Peijin Chen.