the pollution thread
 

What kind of mask would be best for my 6 month pregnant wife who's getting paranoid about our trip to Beijing in two weeks due to all of the recent news?

CNY has around 3 heavy fireworks days, and a quick google search should reveal the exact dates. If you happen to be in Beijing during these days, I encourage you to stay indoors at a hotel with an awesome HVAC system (Marriott NE is the best I know of). For the rest of CNY, the air really isn't all that bad (because there are less people/cars in town). The mask thing really won't help your wife much (apart from a placebo effect). You might also want to consider a side trip to one of China's cleaner cities (e.g. Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen).

the pollution thread
 

Thanks for the advice. We'll be staying at the Grand Hyatt Beijing and unfortunately won't be able to get out of Beijing this trip to see other areas. Do you happen to know the three heavy firework days? I did a quick search but apparently I'm not searching for the right thing. All I'm seeing is one day, Feb. 10th. Thanks again.

Well, the first day (new year's eve) is the worst by far. And, if you do a wiki search for CNY (spring festival), it will surely explain the drill. Basically, if you know when it starts (Feb 9, iirc), you can figure out when the big days are (day 3 comes to mind as one of them, but I could be mistaken).

The area around the GH is well controlled and in many areas in the CBD you are not allowed to do fireworks during CNY. I saw on another forum that the GH has started the renovation process of their rooms already (floor 9 and above). I don't think there will be anyone working during CNY, but it is hard to say as not everyone can go back to their hometowns to celebrate. Better ask before you arrive or at check-in!

With regards to the masks for your wife - the P100 / N95 does help a bit, see the site from the US Embassy http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn
/20130201-pm25-steps.html

It is always better than not having one on a bad polluted day!

the pollution thread
 

Thanks again guys, it looks like we should be avoiding the firework days (based on the Spring Festival wiki), we'll be their the 17-23.

Anyone know what the pollution is like in Beijing right now? I'll be there April 9th ...

As measured by US Embassy in BJ - http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/aqirecent3.html

And, in Chinese from the PRC Ministry of Environmental Protection on air quality data for cities throughout China at http://www.cnemc.cn BJ is under - http://www.bjmemc.com.cn/

As mentioned upthread, easy enough to look up, but will it in any material way change your plans?

Regardless of how bad the pollution, if this was my only trip to BJ, I would still go to the GW etc. (although the view will be terrible).

You could invest in an N95 respirator mask I suppose, but wouldn't recommend it: the vast majority of people don't know how to fit it properly on their face, so it is just a (bad) cosmetic effort.

tb

If you are only going for a few days, the overall risk of even high pollution is low.

try your luck. usually 3 bad day and 1 good day.

Just don't worry about it :D Much less stress without the worries of things you cannot impact or control, or masks that won't do any good.

Reduce the effects of Pollution
 

This is a great place to take some insurance in the way of Anti-oxidants like higher doses of Natural Vit C ( personal doses are 5000-10,000+ mg or tolerance) and Gamma Vit E (800 units+) per day! There are other supplements to protect the heart, lungs, & brain, as well as, Detox for the whole body. INcrease intake of PURE water(or Green tea :D)while traveling with high pollution. These are my normal daily doses!
It will make a big difference on keeping you feeing in better condition.

What are the first two weeks of October generally like re: pollution?

I understand this same period are National Holidays, and I am curious, if this means there are more or less tourists/locals traveling in PVG & PEK?

WSJ article
 

Why leave Beijing? To breathe.

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/a/SB100...?mg=reno64-wsj

China Daily article

First Tier Cities "uninhabitable* - pollution and housing prices


http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2...83cda-24573061

Well, the article is not wrong. But I'd add that a lot of second- and third-tier cities in China are equally unliveable due to various factors.

On our recent visit to China, our first day there was May 1, which is the labour day holiday. Combined with the previous two days as holiday as well as the weekend, the air quality was excellent. Sunny and beautiful. I thought to myself that the pollution isn't too bad. Of course, that was short lived as work resumed the next day....

FDW

Eaten rice yet - might want to ask about the source/origin of those white rice, especially in Guangzhou / Guangdong providence in southern China. China's own government inspectors found that 44% of the sample tested for high level of toxic chemical, cadmium - associated with kidney & liver damages to human and is said to be cancer causing.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-...using-cadmium/

It is believed the result of soil contamination due to industrial pollution & discharges, what a surprise - NOT :rolleyes:

Stick with Uncle Ben's rice or get imported Thailand rice - as those are the ones we get from our local supermarket - now, the border runners will be adding rice to their catalog of items with things like imported baby formula.

It's been known for years the rice is poisonous.

Is that only in the Guangzhou area or all of China?

That's not even the point, not even who knew what, when & probably who - the comrades all looked the other way - and, like the other farmers, "they" won't dip into the same rice mills. It's shipped & sold elsewhere or at least consumed by others.

Now, government inspectors at least put on the official drama to cool people off - spin control for the media's show & tell.

Stock up on imported spring water, cup-a-noodles, energy bar & even MRE's - on recent CA flights, they were serving mostly ducks in J & F - no chicken or pork.

Ummm, ducks are also "poultry" (though I don't keep close enough tabs on this flu thing to know whether or not any cases have been transmitted to them).

cancel

Asian 'flu is the term usually reserved for the 1957 influenza A pandemic. The recent posts are about avian 'flu, and specifically H7N9, which infects birds primarily. There's not much evidence that it infects pigs. Although H7 influenza viruses can and have infected wild birds and domesticated and wild ducks, the current outbreak is mostly confined to poultry (hens).

tb

NY TIMES Article
 

Life in a toxic country
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...ticleLarge.jpg

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/04...c-country.html

Yet another story ....and so true. I guess it will take ages to improve ......the air quality on 2013 so far is really horrendous.

My guess is not only 2013, just in years past there was less info (not that info now is so great). One city I do like in China was Xiamen, the times I have been there clean air and in general a cleaner city (by China standards). Seems all Taxi cars there use LPG/CNG, wonder if Beijing can do that?

Beijing already does that, and also most of the buses. Isn't helping since there are just too many other sources of pollution from within the city and (importantly) from the industrial belt east and southeast of BJ.

Xiamen is indeed nice, would be one of my picks for living/working (if there were any jobs available!), and has some of the better air amongst Chinese big cities but it has three advantages:
--less volume of automobiles
--not much heavy industry contribution from the city or nearby cities
--geographic location and sea breezes the blow the stuff away.

We'll be spending 5 days in Beijing followed by another 5 in Shanghai at the beginning of November.

Having just viewed the PM2.5 stats, I'm getting a bit worried. Should we be thinking of changing our Beijing plans and visit another city instead?

If not, what can we do in BJ that won't expose us unnecessarily to heavy levels of pollution?

Fall (before the weather gets cold and the coal burning starts) is usually one of the best times of the year to visit Beijing from an air pollution perspective. Furthermore, a few days of bad air isn't going to kill you.

This is the key point. Unless you have specific and serious respiratory problems, the pollution is not going to affect you in a serious way. If you are really that worried, I would avoid China altogether. SH and almost any other city may also have bad days.

tb

Well, at least you're not going to Harbin:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z4

This afternoon/evening were also pretty atrocious 1500 miles to south here in Nanning... perhaps the first noticeable air pollution I've seen here. With all of the construction going on, one would expect to see this more often, but I guess there's not much heavy industry (or coal use) in the region. My colleagues told me that an inversion was to blame, but that it would probably pass quickly. Fortunately, they were right (Beijing's spring inversions can last for days at a time).

Probabaly fugitive dust, from construction.

They can copy California "CEQA" and label it: China Environmental Quality Act.
Then claim they replaced diesel engines in construction machinery with
lithium batteries and electric motors.

I'd bring some masks (seriously).

About when is that in terms of Beijing (I've found some very attractive FF tickets to China for next year). Is the pollution in Shanghai as bad as it is in Beijing? I'm thinking about a special occasion (anniversary/birthday) trip in early September. Nothing too adventurous (although the countryside may be less adventurous these days than Beijing on a "bad hair day").

My husband and I don't have any special respiratory problems. But we are seniors - and perhaps have to be more cautious than other people. Even if the pollution won't "kill us" (and I'm sure my smoking will kill me before a week or two in China) - I'm just afraid bad air pollution may slow us down in terms of our ability to explore. We like to walk - and poke around - and don't have as much energy as we used to.

Some younger residents of our HOA went to China in the late fall of last year - and posted pictures of their trip. The pollution looked kind of bad - and they were wearing face masks.

Also - in early September - would the weather be super hot? We're ok with hot (we live in Florida) - as long as no one minds our wearing shorts and comfy shirts. But temps in the high 80's or higher are hard for us in big cities (we were in Tokyo last year in early September - and temps like that there really slowed us down a lot).

We'd really like to visit China before we're too old to do so - but not if the trip winds up being a forced march through unpleasant conditions (the super long air trip is bad enough!). Robyn

September is a great month to visit Beijing. But in 2014 the dates of sept. 6-7-8 are a holiday weekend, Ok, if you like crowds...

Early Sept. in Shanghai will be as tropical as Tokyo was.

Nobody can give you any guarantees on the pollution conditions or trends for a specific month anymore and particularly not for Beijing but if you had to gamble on a month, September is as good as any and the weather is usually very pleasant. September in Shanghai is going to be roughly comparable to Jacksonville in avg temperature and humidity though cooler in the last half of the month. Assuming a trip of 2-3 weeks, consider starting in Beijing with arrival around September 10 (after the mid-Autumn holiday) and working your way south perhaps ending Shanghai or Hong Kong for flight home. You definitely want to exit China by around September 28 when the run up to a big national holiday week kicks in. If you are OK with cooler weather and particularly in Beijing/Xi'an, then postpone arrival until October 10 or so. Though Beijing and some other cities have many iffy days of pollution, there are some parts of China and places to visit that have relatively better air that shouldn't cause you issues, and maybe putting some of those in your trip would help.

Will be in China Nov 21- Dec 1 (Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Suzhou and Hangzhou). What would be the pollution around that time considering its cold..

Thanks for the information. Seems like no time is perfect. So I just picked the days with the best FF tickets and better chances for good weather. Arriving in Beijing on 9/24 and departing Shanghai on 10/7. That does put us in China for Golden Week - and we will just work around it in terms of our scheduling. Figure out what things to avoid - and avoid them. Note that we plan to stay in 2 - max 3 places. Robyn