For me and for people who live in big cities in China, half of the winter is a disaster. It’s not because of the cold weather, but about air pollution, the terrible haze. The scenes are still flashing in my head, about that day in Shanghai.

It was six o’clock in the morning in the dorm of my school. I woke up with joy and happiness, as it was the day to go home. I moved my body, and looked at the outside world. It was totally white, in a definitely strange way. It seemed to be the water vapor covering the window, which was a normal thing in the morning, but it was not. I jumped out of my bed and opened the window. It was a world of white. The fog covered all the things in my school. The nearby apartment building, the fences, the trees, the roads were all unclear in the air, like they were wearing a silk covering. I couldn’t even see a tall building 50 meters nearby through the haze. The visibility almost dropped to 0. When I was watching this unbelievable scene, a breeze took the air inside the room. It was absolutely not a good thing, as it smelled nasty, just like someone smoked outside. It was just like the toxic air in the movies, though it’s not green but white. My roommates coughed when I turned around. They were covering their nose as the air smelled so awful. “Close the window!” I did what they said. The sound of talking about the weather and coughing passed from the air to my ear. The dorm was so noisy, which was really rare as mornings were always quiet and peaceful.

After I finished cleaning my dorm, I headed to the canteen. I had contact with the haze outside. It was almost everywhere, that it was just 2 meters above my head. There is no way I could see the sky, even the nearby buildings. It warmth of the sunlight was blocked by the mist, making the air even colder. I shivered in the cold wind, as I started looking around. Walking in the path of my school was just like walking in a mysterious forest with fog like the scenes in the movies. Nothing could be seen but the white haze and the trees beside. As I came close to the buildings of my school, it was like a ghost town. The sky was grey and mysterious. No light came out of the classrooms above, as darkness overwhelmed the building. The only light came from the canteen, but no one was inside. Sounds of crowds came behind me as they were chatting and talking about the weather. Clothes were used to cover their nose and mouth. Fear, surprise, and shock were shown on their faces as they walked by. My classmates told me that they had never seen anything like that before, and neither did I. My heart was filled with a bit of fear, like it was the end of the world, but I knew it would be fine soon, so I was watching all those things with surprise and complaint about the air pollution, trying to notice something not about the haze, to keep away my fear. The haze is shocking, as we can’t see the whole world clearly. That’s what makes us frightened. Near lunch, it became better. The haze was thinner, as the building revealed themselves. We can see the National Flag in the playground. The white disappeared, but it still smelled bad. The fear disappeared, too. After that day, we knew that the PM2.5 of that day was about 600, 10 times higher than a normal day.
That day was really horrible. The haze is caused by air pollution, which was polluted by factories in the close provinces, which was also combined by the fog of winter mornings, making things worst. We can do something to prevent it. Save energy to decrease the amount of Co2 in the air. This is what we can do. That’s the haze of Shanghai, white, terrible, bad-smelling. I hope not to see it again.