Have they actually been there

This evening I was in Barnes and Noble browsing the guidebooks section. There were many on China, and similar to the guidebook I already have, most reduce Shenzhen to a page. One that I found that had a few pages on Shenzhen was one for foreigners living in China. I had to text Randy immediately as I read something not quite true.

Me: Should I trust a guide book that says that Shenzhen was one of the first cities in China to get its pollution under control?
Randy: Now you know better.

At home tonight the first thing I read in the South China Morning Post was that the pollution in Guangdong province last year was the worst in a very long time.

Guangdong recorded its worst air pollution in decades last year despite repeated government promises to clean up the environment.

The average number of smoggy days, when visibility is below 10km, reached 75 across the province, up 20 per cent from the 63 days recorded in 2005, according to the "2006 Guangdong Economic and Social Development Statistics Report", released this week. It was the highest figure since 1980.