China's pollution is getting really out of hand, many Beijing residents are now opting to go as far as Iceland and Antarctica just to get a breath of fresh air. According to a Shanghai-based travel search website, online searches for "lung cleansing" and "smog escape" are now the leading keywords searched by Chinese residents.
Since the start of the year 2017, several health alerts across 62 cities of China have been issued, due to the heavy air pollution and smog. A research done by the World Health Organization led to the discovery that Chinese residents are now breathing in 475 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5 particles-the most dangerous kind of pollutant. The severity level of China's pollution nowadays is said to be equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day.
Because of this, the Chinese, most particularly those who lived in Beijing, are now booking several tour packages in far-flung places such as the Seychelles, Iceland, and Antarctica, just to cleanse their lungs. Other popular destinations include Bali, Indonesia, Phuket, Thailand, and Jeju Island in South Korea.
Chen Jining, minister of environmental protection, issued a statement last Friday concerning the heavy air pollution now covering China's skies. "The root cause of the region's smog problems, from a long-term perspective, is the unclean industrial and energy mix, which require big changes," he said.
Because of the heavy pollution problem, an environmental task force has been made, and in Beijing alone, 500 factories that cause pollution will be closed, with several others given a stiff warning to clean up their operations. Vehicles that use highly-polluting gasses will also be banned from Beijing starting next month, officials said.
China's tourism has also taken a massive blow last year, although the Beijing Tourism Development Commission didn't specifically say that it's because of the massive air pollution. Results were unclear, according to them.
Several local media have tried to speak against the issue, but most of them are being censored. In one post, it said: "Many people say the pollution fight can't sacrifice the economy, but nobody really studies the economic cost caused by smog."
"Restaurants, shopping malls are mostly empty and tourism in Beijing at yearend was losing business -- and also talk about the impact on the movie industry. There's a cinema right below my house, I don't even want to go."
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