Job Discussion Forums

Asynca · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 9:57 pm Post subject: Air Pollution Hotspots

Hiya!
I have a problem. I originally come from Adelaide, Australia. Over here the air is really clean - air pollution isn't a problem at all. However, I'm desperate to teach in China rather than anywhere else. Which cities are the LEAST polluted, or the most tolerable?

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Dalian and Kunming would be high on that list.

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

definitely Dalian!
MT

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

They heat with coal in Dalian - sory, but coal dust is rather unhealthy!
The best location might be HAINAN - no heating evr needed (tropical), not overindustrialised (Haikou being the ugly exception).

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Roger,

Where in China don't they heat with coal?

As you pointed out, in a tropical area, otherwise....

Non-polluted areas in China: an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

Least polluted, though: it's all very relative. China makes LA look like a clean air paradise.

Idea

I think Lanzhou would be worth checking out. Surprised

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

South of the Yangtse, heating is not all too common, so coal heating is not as much of a problem here as it undooubtedly is north of it - soot in the air, in rooms, causing you to cough, and causing you to recuperate from a mild flu for months!

What is "pollution" anyway?
If it's not coal fires, is it perhaps exhaust emissions? Oh yes, that's exploding too!
But it was worse only 5 years back when few buses had diesel engines, and those old bangers that used so much petrol that the drivers would turn off the engine at every stop and even coast to the red light ahead of them...

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Roger,

Have you ever seen those public buses with the huge "garbage bag" full of petrol on the top with the tube running down its side to the gas tank to keep it powered? Shocked

When I became aware of such a thing for the first time, I was scared and then I laughed. It was around Chunjie and I was wondering what would happen if an errant bottle rocket met up with one of those bags. Exclamation

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Roger,
Dalian does indeed heat with coal, and does have some industry. But those lovely sea breezes tend to blow everything off towards garden spots like Shenyang, where they won't be able to tell the difference anyway. Smile

The air in Dalian was nice, at least for a Chinese city.
MT

wanderlust1066 · Joined: 16 Aug 2003 Posts: 82 Location: Kowloon, Hong Kong

Sorry, but this poster asked for places that were pollution-free! Anywhere south of Harbin and north of Shenzhen is likely to kill most on the spot. As I have said before, there IS a REASON why birds DON'T come into China but rather stop at the border. And there IS a reason why all Chinese are as blind as bats.

The worst place I have ever seen in China was a real northern crudhole/scumpit called 'Shenyang' which I had been led to expect to be a mini-Las Vegas mixed with Helsinki mixed with Kruger Park. Needless to say it was nothing of the sort. I did not see the sky for 3 days as the clouds were BLACK with coal soot and, yes, the snow was black.

Asynca · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:52 am Post subject: !!!

I'm going to check out China in Jan-Feb 2004 to see where would be the best places to teach. It will be winter, so I guess I'll get the worst of the coal dust. I'll check out Kunming and Dalian, thanks folks Smile

NumberOneSon · Joined: 03 Jul 2003 Posts: 314

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Sorry, guys, but you all invited this wanderlusty boerman into the debate, and he of all folks obviously knows nothing about the country in which he happens to reside too albeit in one of the more polluted places where, incidentally, the birds that never cross the borders into China are tolerated in a marshy swamp turned into an ornithological reserve (I am referring to Maipo in the NW, wanderlust).
Where I live there is no coal dust, no car exhaust, birds twit and chirp every day of the year through four seasons; I do not know why folks always bring up this topic of "environmental degradation" and "pollution" - to my knowledge, and my knowledge is bookish at best - the USA is one of the world's worst offenders, isn't it? At least as far as car exhaust is concerned. We are not even at the beginning of the same problem here in China!

But, I also mentioned that HAINAN is wonderfully clean. You can even enjoy swimming and diving in the sea.
Hainan is a climatic and geographic cousin of Hawaii!

dudette · Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 72 Location: Ontario, Canada

OMG NumberOneSon, please tell me that's snow in Sichuan Shocked

Asynca · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:49 pm Post subject: pollution

Wow, that's a scarey image.... Fujian here I come... it's the only place on that map where green shines through!

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

I look at pollution in China with the attitude that "anything that doesn't kill you will make you stronger."

After three years in Chengdu, I now have lungs of iron, literally.

Even if you go to a cleaner than clean place in China, you'll still have to deal with second-hand smoke in the great majority of establishments and perhaps a bit of loogey-hocking to boot.