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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 1:31 am
  #1  
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Beijing pollen

A day after I arrived in Beijing (and stood for an hour in the taxi cue at Beijing West train station in the smog) I have a severe allergy attack.
I am popping antihistamines like crazy but it does not seem to help. I noticed small white fluffy things floating in the air. Note sure if it is related to my stuffed nose.

Glad I am going home tomorrow...
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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 1:41 am
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Sorry to hear.

Interestingly my wife after living in China now for three years has found that her allergies / hay fever is practically gone. The second she gets off the plane in Canada or Japan, her hay fever is back with a vengeance.
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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 1:59 am
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Smog is the likely culprit.
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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 5:46 am
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Originally Posted by Doc Savage
Smog is the likely culprit.
No. The OP is spot on in this case (though I would never question the possibility that industrial pollutants are also at play). While I forget the name of the offending tree, the BJ government planted thousands of them about 10 years ago; this helped wrt the pollution problem (fast growing and early blooming), but the white fluffy things caused so much outrage that they've been in the process of replacing them with kinder trees as fast as possible. This is precisely the reason I advise people to avoid BJ between April 20 and May 10.
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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 8:03 pm
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Originally Posted by moondog
No. The OP is spot on in this case (though I would never question the possibility that industrial pollutants are also at play). While I forget the name of the offending tree, the BJ government planted thousands of them about 10 years ago; this helped wrt the pollution problem (fast growing and early blooming), but the white fluffy things caused so much outrage that they've been in the process of replacing them with kinder trees as fast as possible. This is precisely the reason I advise people to avoid BJ between April 20 and May 10.
Cherry Blossom perhaps?
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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 8:26 pm
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Originally Posted by dieuwer2
Cherry Blossom perhaps?
No. More research needed.
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Old Apr 26, 2013 | 8:57 pm
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The offending trees go by 白杨 or 杨树, which I think translates as poplar or willow (I forget which). Though I'm not allergic, I'm also not immune from that miserable white fluff covering myself and my belongings and generally making late April through mid-May a rather annoying time to be in Beijing...
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Old Apr 27, 2013 | 12:02 am
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Spring Snow

Years ago when the city of Beijing needed to plant trees for shade and to help improve air quality, poplar and willow trees were planted due to their fast growth and hearty nature in the tough Beijing climate. But those lovely trees are the very culprits of the flurry.catskins....fluffy things you see around at this time of year, sometimes so plentiful that they obstruct your view when driving or riding a bike..
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Old May 16, 2013 | 11:50 pm
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Originally Posted by anacapamalibu
Years ago when the city of Beijing needed to plant trees for shade and to help improve air quality, poplar and willow trees were planted due to their fast growth and hearty nature in the tough Beijing climate. But those lovely trees are the very culprits of the flurry.catskins....fluffy things you see around at this time of year, sometimes so plentiful that they obstruct your view when driving or riding a bike..
I know a lot of people here in Calgary blame the white poplar fluff for their allergies every year - but those actually have very large pollen molecules which don't cause many (or any) people problems. They're just very visible and people assume that is what causes their allergies, when in reality it's usually the invisible grass/etc pollen that really irritates them.
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