Shanghai Air Quality

[Feistygirl916]

Hi there!

For anyone who has recently been to Shanghai, could you please tell me about the air quality? Were face masks needed, or did you see them all over the place? We are going in November and I wear contacts and one of my fellow travelers has asthma. Is this going to affect us at all?

I live in SoCal (not LA, where the smog is gross in the summer) and would like to be prepared. All the guide books I have read for Shanghai and Hong Kong say that it will be pretty bad for contact lenses and really bad for asthmatic guests.


Any advice or ideas would be appreciated!

 

[China Expat]

I work in China. THe air quality changes daily; it all depends on wind and humidity. Check the aqi in the mornings and wear a mask if it is over 150. Contact lenses are not affected. LastNovember the aqi was lousy/high.

 

[zanzibar138]

I'm not sure what the actual numbers were when I was there, but I didn't find it too bad, and I didn't see many people wearing masks. I don't have asthma, but I'm fairly sensitive to air quality (eg can't stand cigarette smoke).

I would make sure you're prepared with a face mask for your asthmatic friend, in case she needs it. Make sure she always has her puffer on her as well. I'm not really sure what else you can do if the air quality is bad. Would sunglasses help with your contacts? With the haze, I found it pretty glary anyway even when there wasn't any sun. Or do you have glasses you can use in a pinch? If you're planning to do some sightseeing in the city, maybe you could break it up with gardens and indoor activities where the air quality is likely to be better. At Disney, I would recommend taking a break back at your hotel in the afternoon (if staying onsite). You could also break up the day with the indoor shows (Pirates stunt show, Frozen singalong, Tarzan, even the Lion King!).

 

[Feistygirl916]

Thank you both. We will be bringing masks, just incase.

 

[Dentam]

I am planning to bring masks also. We are also going to Beijing and I've heard it can be worse there. I'm also bringing plenty of wet wipes, kleenex, Immodium, etc. Trying to think of everything to be prepared!

 

[kidd_freeper]

Shanghai is near the coast so it airs out better. I was there in early April. It still reminded me of 1960s Los Angeles though.
Beijing is inland and is beyond terrible. <1/4 mile visibility due to air pollution.

 

[kidd_freeper]

I was at SDL yesterday (August 6). Blue skies all day!
Almost no one was wearing a mask. Air quality was good.
So I guess air quality is hit and miss in Shanghai.

But it was HOT!
Hotter than Florida. I caught the subway at 5:30 am and it was already 87 degrees. By noon it was mid-90s with humidity close to 90%.
By midday I was air conditioning hopping. Staying hydrated just wasn't enough. Being a very big park, this really wore me down.
Perhaps no one was wearing a mask because that would just make the wearer too hot.

My advice for POTC - this is an amazing, jaw-dropping, must-do ride. Possibly the greatest ride on the planet. I rode it twice, once as a single rider and once in standby. Most of the standby line is outdoors. There are a lot of switchbacks in the queue, so people are jammed together pretty tightly under an outdoor covered shelter - and it became unbearably stuffy, despite overhead fans. If you have any kind of breathing issue at all, I recommend the single rider line to avoid this. And go early - they closed the single rider line after 2:30 on the day I went.

 

[Dentam]

I was in Shanghai and Beijing for two weeks and never wore a mask - blue skies many days even in Beijing and at the Great Wall!

 

[sayhello]

I was in Shanghai and Beijing for two weeks and never wore a mask - blue skies many days even in Beijing and at the Great Wall!

View attachment 186583

What time of year were you there?

Sayhello

 

[Dentam]

What time of year were you there?

Sayhello

Late July/Early August - we were told that winters are worse for air quality there.

 

[sayhello]

Late July/Early August - we were told that winters are worse for air quality there.

Thanks. I'm going in June...

Sayhello

 

[Aussie Wendy]

We were just there (March) and have pics the same as Dentam, lots of blue skies and very minor haze. I thought Shanghai fine as well on our fine blue sky day (wet and cold the others) but we don't suffer from lung problems. The few people eg we saw in Beijing with face masks seemed to be because they had a cold. I really do think as others say go prepared as you just don't know how it will be when you are there.

 

[PrincessInOz]

We were also just there (with Aussie Wendy and Zanzibar) in March. I did see people in Shanghai wearing masks but they were few and far between.

I do suffer from an asthmatic cough from time to time and took some Ventolin with me. I found that I didn't need it. The haze was a worse than Melbourne haze and I did notice it; but the air quality didn't seem that bad to me. Maybe it was because of the time of year we were there.

 

[katt789]

We were there last fall & air quality definitely varied! Beijing we LUCKED out in having 2 very clear days, but our last day was gross. I personally (as someone with asthma) would have liked to wear/did wear the mask more often than we did. My friends were very much "no one else is wearing them I feel silly" but talking to people who live/work over there, locals are so used to it that they don't bother.

In Shanghai, the first 2 days in the parks were amazing, blue skies, we'd lucked out, the last day was a little bit worse, and by the next day I was 100% feeling it, and stayed in the hostel that afternoon & wore the mask while we were moving locations. Friends claim they didn't feel it, but both were feeling a little "sick"/"allergy" type symptoms.

Check the air quality daily, and make sure the settings (if you're using an app) are on the "us standards" as the asia standards are far lower!