Air in China (especially eastern side) are really polluted most of the time. Air polution does really exist and at a very dangerous level. To get the idea: Most cities in the USA/Europe usually have Air Quality Index (AQI) under 30. On January 2013 indexes in many provinces hit new highs, many areas in China reach AQI of 400 or above daily. Beijing many times got reading way above the chart.

Check AQI data here: Beijing US embassy, AQICN, Beijing Municipal Environment Monitoring Center, baidu (type in "北京天气”）.

All stories you read in the news are correct: people wearing mask, visibility under 100 meters, "smell", and so on. I live trough all of them in Beijing and Wuxi. Wuxi is a smaller town with more trees, water (lake), and rain so the situation is much better than Beijing. But the AQI could get as high as 400 too. Really there's no escape since the scale of the pollution from industrialization is too big.

Ideas:

. Wear masks. There are many different types of masks, be sure to pick one that protects against PM 2.5.

For PM 2.5 a simple cloth like below doubtful will work.

I usually use, for example, by 3M N90 or N95, P1, P2... These symbols are standardized by NIOSH.There are many standards depending whether the masks are from USA, Europe, or elsewhere. Check the convention here.

N95 is much more expensive than N90. N90 I think should be good enough since the "particle" considered is for those under .1 micron. PM 2.5 is for 2.5 micron.   

Various 3M masks. (I am not connected in anyway by 3M but I remember how helpful their representatives were when I asked information about masks. So I have been using their product ever since.)

. During these air pollution attacks, one shouldn't open windows or doors. One could try to grow indoor plants as what's researched by Nasa in the past. If you're interested, check the Chinese names of some of the plants here.

Yes, read all about it under Health Care.

Housekeeper- When we moved to Beijing in 2003, a full time housekeeper costed 650 yuan/month. Now (2011), it costs 2600 yuan in our area. The cost is area dependent, for example, our friends in down town who live in the EXPAT area pay 3000 yuan/month. A full time housekeeper is the one who live with us. We provide them with a room and food. Nowadays, they also demand a break about 1 hour in the afternoon. In the past, they didn't. Housekeepers are in big demands now. Much more than in the past. A part time costs the same, but they work 9 hours/day with 1 hour break and each week end they get 1 day off. A full timer gets only two days off/month.

Sure, read my tips for living in China article about violin.

Check out China expats guide to metric here