Hefei Expat - China

The World => News and Opinion => Topic started by: YetAnotherCanadian on April 28, 2013, 07:24:34 am

Title: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: YetAnotherCanadian on April 28, 2013, 07:24:34 am

While living in Shanghai, I was constantly sick.  Having now been outside China for a year, I know this was caused by the very poor air quality (and perhaps food/water quality) there.

How do you guys find Hefei's air?  I know it's much cleaner than Shanghai's, but does the pollution bother you at all?

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: YetAnotherCanadian on April 29, 2013, 07:06:03 am

This website seems to get lots of views, but no real action.  C'mon guys!  Don't be shy!

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: Aussie Mike on April 29, 2013, 09:55:16 am

Back in 2004, the cleaners would pile up the rubbish in the street and burn it. Plastic, wood, paper, food scraps, the lot.
The air was always full of rancid, putrid smoke that would get up your nose, in your clothes and sting your eyes.
That has been stopped so the air is much cleaner now. However there is still a lot of construction going on to the quality of is is still not great.

Also the government has closed most of the coal burning generators and laid super heated steam pipes throughout the city instead.

Occasionally you get to see blue skies now where prior to 2008, there were only dirty grey skies

The real problen now is the dust.

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: rgeczi on April 29, 2013, 12:01:24 pm

I agree with Mike.  Dust is a big problem here from all the construction.  I think near my home (Hu Po), they are maxed out on the available land to build, so it looks like we will be getting dust-free days in the coming months.  ;D  But who knows, maybe they will find a patch of land to build some more stuff on.

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: YetAnotherCanadian on April 30, 2013, 02:17:28 am

Wow, but to be honest it still sounds better than Shanghai.  I flew into Shanghai last week (after being out of China for almost a year) and you could really tell that the city had an 'unclean' stench to it.  We drove to the Anhui countryside and that smell went away completely.  That was why I was curious what Hefei was like.  I have an app that shows Chinese ait quality.  Hefei is never really 'clean' but it is not nearly as bad as Shanggers.

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: Aussie Mike on May 01, 2013, 06:38:35 am

It rained last night and today the sky is definately blue.

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: YetAnotherCanadian on May 01, 2013, 07:18:48 am

Is blue sky a rare treat?  :)

Title: Re: Air quality in Hefei - does it bother you?
Post by: Aussie Mike on May 01, 2013, 08:08:19 am

About as rare as rocking horse dung.