“Much of the key to a good Chinese meal are fresh ingredients and balanced quantities of meat.”
Don’t forget the lead and assorted heavy metals. At least the “Chinese” food in the US won’t kill you - even if it is “Cantonese take-out.”
Much of Shanghai’s infrastructure, including water filtration system, is up to Hong Kong, Japanese and European standards. Beijing, host to the Olympics, has few major industries in comparison to coastal provinces due to its distance from the coast. Like Washington, DC, Beijing’s biggest industries are tourism and churning out idiotic government decrees. Beijing’s biggest environmental problems are air pollution from high sulfur coal-burning power plants and sandstorms from the Gobi desert.
However, you are probably correct about other industrialized areas.