Yesterday, the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center advised all the elderly, young, and infirm to remain indoors due to a wave of fog-fostered "light" air pollution that is sweeping the city. The "fog," ( also known by its real name, smog), blew in from central and eastern China and delayed and cancelled flights from Shanghai to destinations in the north. more ›

For those of you who still think you're safe outside Beijing, researchers reported yesterday that downtown Shanghai's fog vapor harbors cancer-causing chemicals. Researchers at Fudan University found our fog to contain carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) at levels ranging 0.03 micrograms to 6.67 micrograms per liter. more ›

Yesterday morning at around 7am a massive pile up occurred on the Donghai Bridge connecting Shanghai to the port of Yangshan. Three people were killed and another 15 injured when a chain collision involving 27 vehicles resulted from Shanghai's worst fog in six months. more ›

One stereotype that's probably true about foreigners in China is that they're very complainy. But did you know Shanghai was actually studying their complainy-ness? A Shanghai Committee has found that the thing foreigners in Shanghai love to complain about the most is air quality. Said the survey, "Foreigners said flying dirt from construction sites is an important cause tarnishing local air quality and they long for a better and clearer sky after the event opens." Air quality even beat out other nuisances, like trash, lack of bilingual service, and internet speed. So the next time you're whining about your post nasal drip, you can know: your peers are doing the same exact thing! more ›

We knew we noticed more blue skies this year. Apparently a total of 334 days (91.5%) in Shanghai registered as having excellent or good air quality - the highest percentage since records began to be taken. Yes! We already found out we were better than Beijing, but it's nice to beat our own personal record. But what about all those "foggy" days? Well, perhaps a lot of it was just water vapor... or maybe small particulate matter, since China doesn't actually measure those even though they're more harmful. Eh. more ›

• China opens bidding on moon probe technology [Reuters]"China will open competitive bidding so that domestic schools and institutions can help build crucial parts of the country's moon exploration craft, an official newspaper said on Wednesday."
• China launches satellite TV channel to train students, teachers and migrant workers [Xinhua] China Education Television (CETV) is to open a new satellite channel to offer educational services and vocational training for primary and middle school students, teachers, and migrant workers beginning on March 2.

We're shrouded in fog! And if you think you're having trouble getting around, think about how the 300 ships on the Huangpu River feel. Visibility is around 1000 meters all around, and reaches lows of 500 meters in some of the worse hit areas. This is the second time this month that fog has made things tough for the 2,000 incoming and outgoing ships Shanghai sees around the area. Last week, 700 got stuck at port. Source:Philstar more ›

Over 16,000 people were stranded in Sichuan and Xinjiang last night after a giant fog enveloped Western China, just in time to screw up traffic for Spring Festival season. Visibility was less than 10 meters, not even close to the 500 meters required for take off. Expressways linking Chengdu to several nearby cities also had to be closed. But no need to get misty-eyed about a bleary situation for our West China friends, by 5am flights had started up again and traffic began its slow crawl by 11am. Spokespeople for Chengdu airport said they should clear the backlog by late tonight. Source: Xinhua more ›