Surviving the Smog

Having lived in Sydney for the past few years, where you will generally find the most beautiful bright blue skies, moving to Hong Kong was a bit of a shock.

The first few weeks I was here I didn’t notice how bad the air situation really was as the weather was pretty decent and the pollution level not too bad. I now know that these clear blue days are a rarity here in Hong Kong and most days the skies are pretty hazy, or should I say smoggy? 

The difference in the view from our apartment on a clear and not so clear day is remarkable.

Clear day



Not so clear day

Air pollution in Hong Kong is has become a serious problem affecting residents health and causing some expats to reconsider a relocation to Hong Kong. While the Government of Hong Kong has introduced new regulations and measures to tackle the issue of pollution the problem is still getting worse. In March 2010, Hong Kong’s smog was the worst on record and a research conducted by the Hong Kong University in 2008 found that the pollutants in the Hong Kong air were three times higher than New York and double that of London! According to a survey conducted in 153 countries, Hong Kong people are the unhappiest in the world with their air quality.

Where does the pollution come from? Well, there are two different opinions on this. According to the Government the pollution comes from the Guangdong factories in the Pearl river Delta. According to other sources, these factories are only part of the story. Hong Kong has the world’s highest traffic density as well as coal burning power plants, contributing to an estimated 50% of the total pollution level (source: http://gohongkong.about.com/od/healthandsaftey/a/ong_Kong_Pollution.htm)

But there is hope, you can now buy bottles of fresh air for HK$2 which, according to the commercial will help you with “exciting new skills, like balloon animals and yodelling” and let you “blow out your birthday candles with confidence”. You can check out the video here. 

So while I’m loving the fact that it’s mid November and it’s still 27 degrees, I’m definitely less enthusiastic about the smog and miss the crisp clear Sydney blue skies….

See you next time!