Shanghai, China’s commercial and industrial hub, staged a massive cleanup for the World Expo, which began May 1 and is expected to draw up to 70 million people. It razed old steel mills and shipyards to make way for the Expo along the banks of the Huangpu River and closed down heavily polluting factories, or moved them to distant suburbs.The city also has sought to reduce car emissions by raising standards required of vehicles that travel into the city’s center. But cleaning up the city is only half the battle, since Shanghai lies downwind of heavily industrialized regions further inland. At times, farm fields in neighboring provinces are burned to clear stubble, leaving the city enveloped in a mucky haze.
The makeover of Shanghai before the expo.
The city says that to clear a huge site along the Huangpu River, which snakes through the heart of Shanghai, it relocated 18,000 families and about 270 factories, including the colossal Jiang Nan Shipyard, which employs 10,000 workers.
Shanghai "expo-based" real time air quality monitor.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) have launched AirNow International, with real-time air quality data reporting from the 2010 World Expo, which runs from May 1 to October 31. The Shanghai EPB will use technology developed by EPA to send air quality data to Shanghai citizens through the Internet.
