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I am no expert but I do live in China. AFAIK China's greatest air quality issues are deforestation, desertification, a growing number of cars and the size and c

I am no expert but I do live in China. AFAIK China's greatest air quality issues are deforestation, desertification, a growing number of cars and the size and concentration of its industrial base, which essentially manufactures for the world. I don't think it's fair or useful to relate its pollution management to that of the US, which has never had the population density, rapid gentrification or scale of industry that China has. Anecdata follows. A German professional I met recently in the air quality monitoring area (responsible for the development, specification and deployment of sensor platforms for international clients) reported that the trucks you often see driving around China spraying roads and air with water are actually a highly effective means of reducing airborne pollution. I had never seen such an approach until China. The same person told me that even in the capital of New Delhi, many cities in India have air pollution so high it's literally off the charts - as sensor values are unreliable at such high concentrations so nobody actually knows how bad it is. Whereas, in Shenzhen (which is considered relatively clean but often has uncommon industrial pollutants) the air is often so bad I get asthma-like symptoms (constricted airway) despite no history of asthma, ten minutes after landing, almost every time. I stopped cycling when I realised this was happening after cycling to work, again almost every time. Still, there's many clean places in China (it's a huge country!), things are improving and there's many good sides to living here, but consistent air quality isn't one of them. Some days it's lovely. Most days it's tolerable. Sometimes it's "don't open any windows" and visibility drops from kilometers to meters.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Shenzhen is much better than Beijing. For us, it was don’t open the window from November to April. When my wife got pregnant, we had no choice but to leave. Coal is a big problem in the north because of central mandated heating. In the south, coal isn’t a problem because there is no indoor heating at all...you just freeze if you aren’t far enough south.
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  > Coal is a big problem in the north because of central mandated heating. In the south, coal isn’t a problem because there is no indoor heating at all...you just freeze if you aren’t far enough south. When I lived in San Francisco, my apartment had a steam heater built into it which I basically couldn't control and which leaked water onto the little metal platform under it that was built into the apartment. When I lived in Shanghai ("the south" by some standards, not by others), apartments all had air conditioners, but if I wanted heat I generally had to install a space heater. Winter in Shanghai is bitterly cold, even if not generally below freezing during the day. What form does northern central mandated heating take?
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Anything north of the Yangtze gets central heating, anything south does not, Shanghai is just on the border :). The coldest winter I've ever had to deal with was in South China. Typically, they just have boilers through the city soviet style that pipe hot water through the apartment buildings. Now, this all used to be coal, but that just exacerbated the air pollution problem, since these were small plants, didn't have any kind of environmental protection. So they have been transformed into natural gas in recent years, at least in Beijing.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

Shenzhen is much better than Beijing. For us, it was don’t open the window from November to April. When my wife got pregnant, we had no choice but to leave. Coal is a big problem in the north because of central mandated heating. In the south, coal isn’t a problem because there is no indoor heating at all...you just freeze if you aren’t far enough south.

thaumasiotes 9y ago
> Coal is a big problem in the north because of central mandated heating. In the south, coal isn’t a problem because there is no indoor heating at all...you just freeze if you aren’t far enough south. When I lived in San Francisco, my apartment had a steam heater built into it which I basically couldn't control and which leaked water onto the little metal platform under it that was built into the apartment. When I lived in Shanghai ("the south" by some standards, not by others), apartments all had air conditioners, but if I wanted heat I generally had to install a space heater. Winter in Shanghai is bitterly cold, even if not generally below freezing during the day. What form does northern central mandated heating take?
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Anything north of the Yangtze gets central heating, anything south does not, Shanghai is just on the border :). The coldest winter I've ever had to deal with was in South China. Typically, they just have boilers through the city soviet style that pipe hot water through the apartment buildings. Now, this all used to be coal, but that just exacerbated the air pollution problem, since these were small plants, didn't have any kind of environmental protection. So they have been transformed into natural gas in recent years, at least in Beijing.