moondog

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.

jiejie

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

benzemalyonnais

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.

moondog

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.

moondog

Today, Beijing is "foggy".

anacapamalibu

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!

West Coast Ace

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".

moondog

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.

medic-again

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

mnredfox

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

moondog

http://twitter.com/beijingair

anacapamalibu

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

anacapamalibu

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

moondog

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.

jiejie

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.