Zuckerberg enjoys ‘great’ run in heavily polluted Beijing

Whatever you did this morning, it probably didn’t wipe as much time off your life as what Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg did. He went for a run through downtown Beijing on a day in which the Chinese capital’s air quality was ranked “very unhealthy.”

Zuckerberg’s own post to Facebook shows him running through Tiananmen Square, past the iconic gate with the Mao portrait in front of the Forbidden City. The air quality index (AQI) at the time Zuckerberg ran past that area was 229 out of 500, according to local base station readouts in the Air Quality app. The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies an AQI from 201 to 300 as very unhealthy, with today’s levels in Beijing considered “emergency conditions” for some people, with the risk of serious health consequences from breathing in the toxic fug. The city-wide AQI is even worse: 252.

An AQI of 0 to 50 is considered “good.”

So today’s not a great day for a jog.

And yet Zuckerberg today made no mention of the pollution.

The social network’s founder started the year by vowing to run a mile each day, encouraging everyone to join in via his A Year of Running public Facebook group.

Zuckerberg Suckuperberg

Despite Facebook being blocked in China by the Great Firewall since 2009, the CEO has repeatedly made overtures to Chinese authorities over the years, although it’s not clear to what purpose.

His appearances in China have increased in volume recently, with the billionaire entrepreneur revealing in 2014 that he’s learning to speak Chinese.

However, Zuckerberg’s diplomacy in China has created some memorably awkward moments, such as in September when he met President Xi Jinping and China’s internet czar Lu Wei, the man responsible for blocking Facebook and thousands of other websites as part of China’s web censorship apparatus.

Lu Wei appears to be loving this. pic.twitter.com/4ozrZpSnd2