About when is that in terms of Beijing (I've found some very attractive FF tickets to China for next year). Is the pollution in Shanghai as bad as it is in Beijing? I'm thinking about a special occasion (anniversary/birthday) trip in early September. Nothing too adventurous (although the countryside may be less adventurous these days than Beijing on a "bad hair day").

My husband and I don't have any special respiratory problems. But we are seniors - and perhaps have to be more cautious than other people. Even if the pollution won't "kill us" (and I'm sure my smoking will kill me before a week or two in China) - I'm just afraid bad air pollution may slow us down in terms of our ability to explore. We like to walk - and poke around - and don't have as much energy as we used to.

Some younger residents of our HOA went to China in the late fall of last year - and posted pictures of their trip. The pollution looked kind of bad - and they were wearing face masks.

Also - in early September - would the weather be super hot? We're ok with hot (we live in Florida) - as long as no one minds our wearing shorts and comfy shirts. But temps in the high 80's or higher are hard for us in big cities (we were in Tokyo last year in early September - and temps like that there really slowed us down a lot).

We'd really like to visit China before we're too old to do so - but not if the trip winds up being a forced march through unpleasant conditions (the super long air trip is bad enough!). Robyn