Comments on: Everything you wish you didn’t know about air pollution in China

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:28:21 +0000

Thanks! Glad it's helpful. About the air pollution... it's not that bad every day, but it is unbelievably bad many days, and usually worse than people think when they see it. The last three or four days have maxed out the pollution index at 500, actually, but before that we had a month or more where the worse days were (my guess) not above 300. All that said, we do choose to live here. Since you're dealing with a job offer, a recent, short post from China Law Blog, and especially this comment, speaks directly to your situation. I'd hate to scare anyone off of China, but at the same time, I'm not apologizing for helping people make informed decisions.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:48:27 +0000

I just want to say thank you for such an informative and entertaining website. My husband has just been offered a job in Tianjin and Beijing but after reading about the air pollution and your (quite humourous if not scary) descriptions of it we’ve declined the offer! Thank you once again.

By: Joel

Joel — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 12:40:42 +0000

ha, well, we’ve never been 100% convinced. But we’ve also always planned to move out of Tianjin, so hopefully that will help (TJ isn’t the worst, but it’s still worse than average for air pollution). Hopefully we’ll end up somewhere more human-friendly. and we’re taking measures in the meantime.

By: Erica

Erica — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:38:11 +0000

Still 100% convinced to raise your baby in China?

By: Behold the power China’s weather gods! | China Hope Live

Behold the power China’s weather gods! | China Hope Live — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:39:47 +0000

[...] Everything you wish you didn’t know about air pollution in China [...]

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:14:20 +0000

yeah, plus different kinds of pollution are worse in different areas, too. I’ve heard that the air is particularly bad near the major coal producing areas, but in other provinces the water is supposedly worse. When my students bring up an example of a polluted place in China they often mention XJ out west. We’ve all heard of “c@ncer villages”, right?

Tianjin definitely isn’t the worst. But even though we know that and you get used to seeing and smelling the smog when you step outside, anytime I actually stop to think about it it’s still amazing.

By: China Law

China Law — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:59:03 +0000

And, of course, there are many places in China with far worse air pollution than Beijing!

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:14:07 +0000

Hey Joel, I just found where my computer was still logged in as you in the comments. I changed it. Is this better?

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:58:16 +0000

maybe when we come, we can all go and check it out :)

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:57:18 +0000

Maybe you can move to Derek’s town. He said it’s nice….