the pollution thread
 

The US Embassy covers this topic in a somewhat objective manner, but my gut tells me that subjective reviews would be beneficial to the community.

While Beijing may well still be the dirtiest city on the planet, I must admit that things have been improving at an alarming rate.

During the past few days, the air quality has been quite good (clear view of the Fragrant Hills from my roof).

Please use this thread to tell us about the state of affairs where you are.

Not even remotely close to the dirtiest city in China, much less on the planet.

agreed. I've been going to 長沙 recently a lot for work and it is a LOT worse than anything in 北京. actually, it's so bad I've started to wear a mask because my nose and throat have been bothering me. i much prefer the trips to bj or gz nowadays.

I saw a survey last year, which ranked Beijing and Guangzhou 1 and 2 in this regard. I agree that Changsha, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou are worse, but I'm guessing they weren't including in the polls, due to the fact that foreigners don't typically visit them. Changsha happens to be one of my favorite cities in China, as long as I can score a hotel with nice HVAC.

Today, Beijing is "foggy".

On the flip side this is a good place in China to breathe. ^

DingHu Mountain (Guangdong) 20 km east of ZhaoQing, possibly the highest concentration of oxygen per cubic meter of any place in China.

In 1979, Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve was included in the International Man and Biosphere Reserve Network of the UNESCO as a global conservation spot for the research of ecosystem in tropical and subtropical forest.

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1p...Q5kSRC7-Fu5nw4

added bonus: There is a cell tower on the top of the mountain, so excellent mobile connection!

LOL! Reminds me of a Chinese businessman who was working out in my hotel's fitness center in Shanghai. Blamed the Shanghai 'fog' on "the Russians".

For those of you oxygen fans out there, that spa near Jingsong Qiao that I plug from time to time (Morely's - 8777 7777) has special oxygen enriched sleeping rooms. It's a great place to go if you want to escape from reality for half a day.

it took me about 3 months of living in my apartment at Xujiahui before the "fog" was thin enough that I could see Jin Mao and WFC from my window. that has become my standard for a good air day, but alas doesn't happen often

Anyone have the link to the US Embassy fog rating again in Beijing?

I wondered why so much construction in China uses ceramic tile
for the exterior. Must be due to an abundance of "fog".

That could be true due to the natural occurence of the fog.

Fog blamed for Beijing's 'poor' air quality

Heavy smog and fog on Sunday made Beijing the most polluted of 47 cities monitored nationwide, according to the official environmental watchdog.

According to the Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau's website, air quality in Huangcun in the capital's Daxing district and Liangxiang in Fangshan district had already been classified "hazardous" by midday on Sunday.

The US embassy in Beijing also qualified the air near its compound in Chaoyang district as "hazardous" in its own measurements made available on the popular micro-blogging site, Twitter.


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2...t_11391663.htm

I'm glad I took the time to tunnel into twitter because the data seemingly reaffirms my subjective observations from my rooftop. Unfortunately, my VPN is crapping out right now so I'm unable to check out Saturday's data, but I'm in complete agreement with the hourly data from today. Late this morning, when I observed the all of that "fog", beijingair was reporting "very unhealthy" PM 2.5 levels. But, over the course of the day, the situation steadily improved to the point that they're claiming that it's only unhealthy for people with health problems. Indeed, I have a faint view of the CCTV Tower (west 3rd ring) again; this morning, I could barely see the CBD (less than a mile away).

ETA: I managed to get into twitter again. Comparing 11a today with 2p Saturday, it appears that PM 2.5 levels were 13 times greater.

The crap earlier in the week was smog, not fog. Not a time of year BJ gets real fog. On a train down south on Monday, hazy and smoggy all the way through Hebei and Shandong. All the power plants and factories in these areas, when the wind is from the south, blows this crap up to Beijing. Then add Beijing's vehicle pollution to the mix. Which gets trapped against the mountains on the north and west. Expect more bad air as we head from spring into summer, and we get no more north/northwest winds.

The Chinese/Beijing gov't despise the US Embassy for putting this information out there. It used to be on the home page of the Embassy website in BJ, but they had to take it off and twitter it instead, where it is blockable to the (majority of) Chinese public. :rolleyes:

What is the cleanest city in China?

Sanya?

lol

Anywhere on mainland China?

For air quality, definitely not. Sanya esp the last 3 years is plagued by haze and construction dust particles. I'd guess of major cities, Lhasa. Though some would argue that's not actually "in China"....:p

Funny, it's on twitter which is blocked in China (sans VPN).

Go high, go west, and go out of the city. Yes, Lhasa is clean. Sanya (though I haven't been there myself) is not.

Anywhere that is clean as in street clean in the east?

Pyongyang

The streets of Dalian are very clean. Almost like a different country compared to elsewhere on the mainland. Air is still polluted, though nothing like Beijing / Linfen / Shijiazhuang or any of the countless coal dust choked mining towns in the hinterlands.

I have never thought of Chinese major cities as all that dirty (street dirty), by Asian developing country standards. In Shanghai the other day, I was just thinking to myself how clean everything was. I suppose it is all relative to what you have seen and experienced before in other places.

Compare Japan to China and you'll get one view. Compare India to China and it's a different perspective.

Granted you won't see trash blowing around on the streets. Like Tijuana.

But what's up with cleaning walls? Interior and exterior walls.

Get out some high pressure steam washers and clean the outside of the
buildings and wipe down all the black marks on inside walls, especially in
stairwells and landings.

Better yet, when you build your next sky scraper, consider using construction materials that don't suck in the dirty air. My best friend's pad in SH is only about 12 years old, but from the looks of it, you would swear it was built in the 1940s

I live in Shanghai (moved from Manhattan) and I find the streets to generally be much cleaner, unless you're talking about the area around central park.

Much safer too. I do miss the cleanliness of my Michigan upbringing though, and I miss fresh air...

Was nice when the Expo was on and they forced the factories to turn off.

Manhattan is a third world city and dump. You should not be comparing Shanghai with Manhattan because without a doubt Shanghai is better, other than the culture.

What does the culture part mean? You might be getting a lot of odd looks right about now...

Manhattan has pickles and broadway. Then again, compared to some parts of Europe Manhattan is still a dump.

When there is a really bad air day in Beijing or other cities, do Chinese people wear a hospital face mask to keep some of the particulate out of their lungs?
Would I look dorky if I did this?

Don't think they would give it a second thought, might think you have a cold
and just don't want to spread it.

I've used masks plenty of times outdoors, both with hospital mask and with N95 molded mask. Often use it when riding my bike. I don't care about what the Chinese think about me wearing one. Since 2003 SARS, at least in Beijing there is a decent enough contingent that wears hospital-type masks when they have colds, so as not to spread. But not to the extent you see this in Japan. Hospital masks are a bit of a psychological item and don't really protect you from much (definitely don't help for pollution), but they can help keep whatever illness you have from passing to others.

Sanya air pollution isnt bad at all.
It's right next to the ocean and so ocean breezes and the monsoon season often clears up whatever pollution there is.
Definitely better than Beijing and HK.

For me, I find that pollution in London is far worse than in Shanghai.
Shanghai's air quality is ok.
By the end of a day walking around in London, my sinuses and throat would really act up...plus all that soot from blowing the nose... :(
In comparison, nothing of that sort happened when in Shanghai or Sanya.

Beijing air quality can be very bad during the spring sandstorms.
The entire city can be covered in yellow dust several days a year.

To be honest, there aren't a lot of Chinese that wear masks anymore. You'll see most of the folks wearing them either on the subway or on a bike/motor scooter.

If you're that concerned about health, then don't worry about looks. If you're worried about looks, unless you look Chinese you're going to get them anyway so might as well do what's good for your health.

Is this a joke? Your personal allergies has nothing to do with air quality. At least what ever is irritating you can grow in London.

I was in Shanghai about two weeks ago and the air there was every bit as toxic as Beijing on a bad day. However, I must admit that Beijing was really bad last week during the 3 days that I was showing my guests around (things improved dramatically almost the minute their plane departed). Today's air is "nice".

In general, I think Shanghai is better air than Beijing, but yes Shanghai does have it's days.

But by today it's really bad. Can hardly see the building on the opposite side of the road from my office.

Shanghai seems to have many more "fog" days than Beijing. Jan-March are a constant "foggy" haze. Beijing at least gets those brilliantly crisp, clear and windy days in the fall and winter.