One of the first things you learn when coming to China is that you no longer check the weather forecast in the morning but the air quality index, especially the pm 2.5 value (The amount of particles smaller than 2.5 µm that are able to get very deep into your lungs ad causing lung cancer, isn’t it nice.) We were very lucky, when we came to Beijing having a few days of good and moderate conditions, but the rest of our time in China we spent in rather unhealthy ‚weather‘. It can feel it a little in the lungs (especially when you already suffer from asthma) and their is something brown and smily that you cough up from time to time.
Bejing AQI of the last 30 days. Luckily we have been south during the last week.
Where it comes from? Mainly from coal-fired power stations, we heard. However, in general people don’t seem to be to bothered. The fewest are wearing masks and people are burning the garbage everywhere even in the city on the street. I fear this is mainly due to lack of knowledge, because there exists a working recycling system.
Guangzhou local waste management.
Anyway, the most irritating fact about the smog in China is that it fucks up nearly every landscape picture. I got a little choice for you from the non processed pictures (and we didn’t encountered the worst conditions a recently in Beijing).
Great wall – you could barely see the second mountain in the row.
A sunny day in Pingyao.
Guilin’s hazy cast mountains.
Sunset in Hongkong. The sun is gone half an hour before sunset.