However, can you order out for air? This little matter of each breath in Shanghai being the equivalent of smoking a carton or suchlike would dampen my enthusiasm.
And that little matter of water that comes in yummy metallic colors...
Actually, I’ve found the air in the Minhang district of Shanghai - where I live 20 weeks of the year - to smell, breathe, and look cleaner than that of Los Angeles. No kidding.
Water from the tap tests and tastes clean as well. The building I’m in doesn’t have any special filtration. Clean enough that I don’t mind cooking, bathing in or drinking it, and I’ve never gotten sick - food poisoning, intestinal issues, etc.
A lot of the bigger Chinese cities are actually quite modern and pretty clean anymore. Money does that - money from the laowai spending, money in the hands of the successful zhongguo ren wanting a better life, money from the government wanting to build up an infrastructure to build a modern economy.
A lot of China still has a LONG way to go, but some of it is actually pretty nice, comfortable, clean, and easy to live in. Affordable, tasty, good international cuisine in some world-class restaurants, great nightlife, very low cost for most of your durable and consumable goods, very affordable housing (I pay $315 per month for a fully furnished 850 square foot two bedroom, one bath apartment on a high floor of a rear building in a nice clean, quiet, upscale complex), and you can make a lot of money here quite easily, if you’re willing to put in a little bit of effort.