{"id":2137,"date":"2014-01-25T10:01:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T10:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/setcourseforchina.wordpress.com\/?p=2137"},"modified":"2014-01-25T10:01:33","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T10:01:33","slug":"lets-talk-about-smog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/?p=2137","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk about Smog"},"content":{"rendered":"

When coming to Beijing, or anywhere in China for that matter, it is hard not to notice the smog.\u00a0 As you walk out of your apartment, hotel, or hostel, you judge the day by the level of smog.\u00a0 Clear blue skies and high visibility- it\u2019s going to be a good day!\u00a0 Grayness and barely able to see down the street- better stay inside.<\/p>\n

This is the everyday reality for Beijingers.\u00a0 Except on bad days, some might throw on a mask and go about their day as usual.\u00a0 Winter brings about the worst smog.\u00a0 Since I am currently staying in Beijing for the next 3 weeks, I decided to invest in a permanent mask.\u00a0 (Before I only used temporary masks.) But before just going out and buying what\u2019s \u201chot\u201d in the mask market, I decided to do my research on which mask would be best for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And, boy I\u2019m glad I did.\u00a0 Wearing a mask isn\u2019t about style but protection.\u00a0 See, one of the most important components of buying a mask pertains to the filter and close fit.\u00a0 Simply by walking down the crowded sidewalks, I\u2019ve noticed that most Chinese people wear surgical masks.\u00a0 Based upon the research I did, these are completely useless.\u00a0 First, a surgical mask has no filter to actually prevent you from breathing in the polluted air. Second, it does not have a tight fit near the bridge of the nose and side of the face which allows polluted air in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mask I wanted is called the Vogmask and fulfills both these requirements.\u00a0 However, I learned that these effective masks are very difficult to come by in China.\u00a0 Actually, most effective masks are difficult to come by.\u00a0 Most foreigners buy them before they come to China.<\/p>\n

After thoroughly looking online, I found one (and only one) store in downtown Beijing that carried them.\u00a0 I got on the subway. Got lost for 2 hours. Found the store.\u00a0 Paid $30 for the mask. Then Left.<\/p>\n

This was a huge hassle to buy something that every Beijinger (arguably every Chinese person) should wear.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So why does China have smog? Where does it come from? What is the government doing now to decrease it?<\/p>\n

As I watch CCTV (state supported news station), I see many reports about the smog.\u00a0 The reports didn\u2019t talk so much about where the smog comes from but what Chinese people should be doing to decrease it.\u00a0 Well this is good news!\u00a0 Let\u2019s get the people involved to improve this horrible health concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is the solution you ask? Decreasing the use of fireworks and preventing the purchase of too many cars in crowded cities.\u00a0 Yup. The reason why 11 year olds are getting diagnosed with lung cancer (primarily due to pollution) is because of firecrackers and cars.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

It has nothing to do with the fact that 68% of energy in China comes from coal (rfa.org). Or the fact that China is the largest coal user in the world (worldcoal.org).\u00a0 Yup it\u2019s those darn firecrackers and cars.\u00a0 PM2.5, those tiny bad particulates that float in the air until they get lodged deep in your lungs never to resurface again (thinkprogress.org), has nothing to do with predominate coal usage in the country.<\/p>\n

So until China decreases the consumption of evil fireworks (just in time for Chinese New Year) and gets all the cars off the road- then I\u2019m stuck wearing this mask.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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When coming to Beijing, or anywhere in China for that matter, it is hard not to notice the smog.\u00a0 As you walk out of your apartment, hotel, or hostel, you judge the day by the level of smog.\u00a0 Clear blue skies and high visibility- it\u2019s going to be a good day!\u00a0 Grayness and barely able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evacohnchina.summitbiztech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}