Hong Kong, Shanghai

Recently I got to Hong Kong's immigration and I experienced another 30+ minute wait. But this time, it was for other reasons. To me, it was obvious why the immigration officials were taking so long. Most of the people in line before me were from the Philippines, probably off of the same flight. The officials kept questioning them about how long they were staying, how many times they'd been to HK, etc. They've never asked me that. Anyways, it's just my opinion that this was something fishy, and perhaps indicative of the culture here.

The pollution reports you've seen on TV about HK are true - in some parts of the city. All I can say is that when I was in Wanchai the other day waiting for someone, I couldn't stand on the street for 3 minutes before feeling so disgusted, sick of the dirty air from the traffic, that I had to seek refuge at an HSBC bank.

That said, Shanghai's pollution the other day was thick haze all day, through at least 12:00AM midnight. I kept asking the cab drivers what that was, and they all said, "Fog". Yeah... Fog doesn't have a scent. It smelled like burning leaves, which I have smelled, but it was the type that I envision SouthEast Asia's burning deforestation smells like. Every breath you take stains your lung just a little more black.