Polluted air is no respecter of boundaries. Shanghai has made great strides in cleaning up the city’s air, but the effort needs a broader scope to be truly effective. So, today, Shanghai sits at the center of an effort to tackle air quality in the Yangtze River Delta region. That involves a cooperative effort with four provinces and 41 cities that border the great river on its final journey to the East China Sea. It’s part of a much broader initiative to more closely bind the economies, transport, industry and cultures of Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi, which together comprise the Yangtze River Delta region.