Shanghai’s air pollution is now worse than Beijing

Beijing has long been seen as the world’s air pollution capital but the city’s air is not even the most toxic in China.

For the first time on record, levels of fine particulate matter in Beijing have dropped below the national average this winter.

And economic hubs such as Shanghai and Guangzhou –  a seat of trade and manufacturing near Hong Kong – are now recording levels of PM2.5 exceeding those in the capital.

PM2.5 records show that prior to this winter, pollution levels in Beijing have been consistently higher than the national average since 2014.

Before this point, PM10 was used as the indicator for particulate pollution. These records go back to to 2001 and suggest the same conclusion; however from late 2012 to early 2014, records were unavailable as the system changed over.