A real reason to not go to China
November 24, 2009 – 11:11 amI’ve been pretty much in favor of China on this blog since the beginning of my writings. However due to recent events a new topic came to my mind. First of all there is this omnipresent topic climate change and pollution, which is a problem. However a problem that doesn’t touch me to much personally, at least I thought so. Last month I went to my well-trusted insurance broker, because I had the option to go to Hong Kong for work. And of course there was the topic of health insurance. This guy also asked me some health questions I didn’t think about before and I got interested in these health questions. I googled around and I found some interesting views. Quite some people said, that no one should stay in mainland China for more than 5 years in life, or your precious body might get hurt to excessive environmental pollution, especially air pollution. I guess the number of 5 years is totally arbitrary, but it presents a certain logic: Staying to long in China will get affect your system in a negative way. Previously I already wrote about the dangerous Atmospheric Brown Clouds over China and these lung piercing particles should concern anyone planning to stay in mainland China long term.
Comparison: Beijing after rain vs. Beijing smog day. Source: Wikipedia.
More than 1,000,000 people die prematurely in China every year thanks to air pollution (numbers vary depending on source, but they all agree it’s more than one million). Indeed the average air in China can be similar to that in a smoking lounge. As I can’t treat money for health (doctors can only remove pain in many cases), this leads me to the question: Should I go to China and risk my health, just because of some incredibly tasty hotpot and some incredibly hot women? I guess no. The solution is probably to go to the other China. Namely Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore (people speak Chinese there… sometimes). I can still visit the health-wrecking mainland during my holidays, but I’ll be able to spend the majority of my time outside of the danger zone. Obviously there is no health insurance on this world that can protect me against a deadly lung cancer caused by thick smog in China (they can remove the lung cancer, but that can be risky as well). Am I over-cautious or is there a real threat? I know some people don’t want to stay on the mainland for to long, others stay there for their whole life without any problems. I guess it’s personal.
I’m currently checking out the job market, but due to this new insight I’m no longer looking for jobs on mainland China. My focus is now on Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.
Question for my readers: Have You thought about the health implications of staying in mainland China and some other places in Asia. And if yes, would You decide against a well paid long term job position on the mainland China due to health risks? I’m looking forward to hear Your thoughts.
Related Articles:
13 Responses to “A real reason to not go to China”
Well, Singapore, HK and Tw are great choices, however, I think it’s hard to find a good job in Singapore as a foreigner, but who knows, you may be lucky. And the city is clean.. but boring. For vacation it’s great, for living… boring (my opinion). I think HK is the most exciting place I’ve ever been. I’d love to live there, but I think it doesn’t have the best air, also because of the vicinity to Shenzhen and Guangzhou. And Taipei is also polluted, so I heard. Plus you need to get used to typhoons and earthquakes. Are you read for that?
By MKL on Nov 24, 2009
It depends where you go, of course. I would imagine that Hong Kong’s air quality is worse than most major mainland cities (other than Beijing and Guangzhou). That’s a guess based on my experience alone, so take that however you want!
Dalian has relatively good air quality but still not great. Feels better than Taipei.
Am now in Hangzhou which is incredibly green and beautiful. Haven’t been here that long so am reluctant to make more sweeping generalisations other than the air quality seems OK
. No worse than London, I’m pretty sure.
BTW, I visited Guangzhou once and it was the most disgusting, polluted, ugliest place I’ve ever been to!
Also, I’d take any stats about lung cancer in china with a pinch of salt. The vast majority of men smoke and so if the air really is that bad, shouldn’t most of them be dead by about the age of 40?
By Mark on Nov 24, 2009
Well of course Singapore is nice – it used to be the country with the highes millionaire density before the financial crisis (now Switzerland is), it’s clean and warm. And there’s good food. But, in my point of view, Singapore is lacking nature…
There are many smaler and cleaner cities in China mailand, where the air-quality is better than in some major European or US-Cities. So if you’d get a job in one of thos kinda remote places, you’d have it all: cheap prices, a beautiful landscape, girls, food, everything you like. The dangerous particles can’t fly so far, and the brown cloud on the picture you posted was probably by a major part caused by desert sand from Gobi and Taklamakan.
In Emei city near Mountain Emei (but in the flatlands), the air is very clean – but in Chegndu downtown, it’s quite dirty (although not as dirty as those eastern Chinese cities.
In Hongkong you won’t get much health benefit, I guess. The population density is too high and the air is coming from the mainland cities like Shenzhen, as mentioned above. So that might not be quite a good option:
Hongkong:
High prices
No nature (big city)
not Chinese language (cantonese)
Anyway… always remember: a short live in which you really lived is better than a long live in which you didn’t do what you wanted. Those last few years between 80 and 90 shouldn’t be the reason for you to not live now…
By Aremonus on Nov 24, 2009
@Nino,
I always thought that Singapore and HK are very similar in terms of entertainment and recreational value. Maybe You can write a blog post about the differences of these two cities on Your blog? I’ve been in HK in the summer and Typhoons are fun, I don’t worry about them. Earthquakes are different cup of tea of course. HK air is ten times better than Shenzhen which in turn is ten times better than Guangzhou. The wind from the sea is very clean and refreshens the air constantly in HK. Even a million dollar cannot get me to Guangzhou for work.
@Mark
true, Guangzhou is like a synonym to smog. I’m also thinking about a few coastal cities like Dalian, but they are smaller and wages are lower there.
Hangzhou around the lake area is okay, but the inner city around the train station is also very polluted. I’d prefer not to work or live in that area. But at the same time my lungs are a little more sensitive than many other peoples’.
By Hendrik on Nov 24, 2009
@Aremonus,
I have a different picture of HK (air quality, nature, prices), I’ll write another post when I can get to it.
I agree on Chengdu, the air is okay there.
Well it doesn’t matter to my lungs if the particles are human made, or dust from the dessert. Both is not good for my lungs.
By Hendrik on Nov 24, 2009
Well sand particles are bigger and less reactive than, say heavy metal micro particles… but I also wouldn’t like to live somewhere where I can’t see farther than 1 kilometer^^
Anyway, as a Chinese friend of mine pointed it out: Some people don’t trust air which they can’t see
Anyway, I don’t really care about this kind of stuff. The risk of premature death is affected much more by depression than by smoking or anything like that^^
By Aremonus on Nov 24, 2009
Ask Your friend if he trusts particles without breathable air in between.
By Hendrik on Nov 25, 2009
I seriously doubt that Hong Kong is less poluted than some mainland cities like Kunming… (except you want to live on a remote island)
By Boris on Nov 25, 2009
I really haven’t noticed much difference in air quality between Dalian and Hangzhou (judging by how the air feels, not looks). But maybe I’m just not sensitive to these things.
I spent almost half a year (this year) living in Dalian and whenever there was a clear day I would go out and take a bunch of photos. I worked out this happened two days per month, on average.
I’ve been in Hangzhou 3 weeks and have yet to see a clear day but this is a short time and so seasonal variations/luck etc play a major part.
BTW, in Hangzhou I’m living at the northwest corner of the lake and so am surrounded by trees and parks. The wonderful Hangzhou Huapu is nearby (doesn’t even get a mention in wikitravel). See a pic here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/qingli/3599818859
So air quality may be quite different compared to downtown. Haven’t been there yet!
By Mark on Nov 25, 2009
@Boris,
Kunming has surprised me positively. It’s much better there than in many places I’ve been before. Still I think Hong Kong is even better. Hong Kong always has a blue sky, except when there is a Typhoon, but rarely smog, if ever. In Kunming there were times where there was sunshine, but still there was a certain almost-seethrough gray veil in front of the blue sky.
@Mark,
I heard about Dalian that it is one of the more healthy cities in China. No wonder you can’t complain.
Regarding Hangzhou… I’ve only been there 3 days. Maybe the wrong 3 days.
Are those pictures at the flickr link yours? They look nice
By Hendrik on Nov 25, 2009
Ah, no not my pictures – I need to find a better camera-camera skills-clear weather day before competing with that
Here’s that place on google maps:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Hangzhou,+Zhejiang,+China&sll=30.273497,120.155249&sspn=0.787511,1.454315&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Hangzhou,+Zhejiang,+China&ll=30.248187,120.122377&spn=0.006154,0.011362&t=h&z=17
Hmm, the satellite images are not very clear. Hmm….
By Mark on Nov 26, 2009
Eating red meat is bad for your health too. Eating meat at all is bad for the environment and a major cause of such air pollution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q4rdx7frHM
By kozen on Nov 26, 2009
Hey Mark,
I missed that place when I was in Hangzhou. Looks nice, next time.
Kozen,
we humans eat all kind of meat since millions of years. We should be alright.
About the pollution of meat production: I do care about micro particles, not about methane, ozone or carbon dioxide. Micro particles are the thing that cause lung cancer. These particles are produced by the industry, not by animals.
However I appreciate Your thoughtfulness. Save the human!
By Hendrik on Nov 26, 2009