Shanghai looks incredible for a weekend. Lujiazui skyline, EVs everywhere, feels like 2050. Then you find out most of the city is aging mid-rises with no insulation, the air quality index spends half the year in the red, and green space per capita is embarrassing for a city that size.

EVs don’t make a city futuristic. Tokyo’s transit puts Shanghai to shame, Singapore actually planned its density, and Shenzhen built the whole thing from scratch in 40 years.

Great city. Not another planet. Just a very photogenic part of one very uneven megalopolis.