Which Chinese city has the worst pollution

[Ed Log]

Hong Kong hit record levels of pollution today - which city is the worst in China?

[jbradfor]

According to this list, Linfen.

Part of the problem with this question, however, is that there are different types of pollution, and people disagree on the relative harm from each one.

Recently, for example, the US EPA has started to focus more on particulates, rather than certain gases. But even then there is disagreement on the relative harm caused by different sized particulates.

[sebhk]

I had a friend from Beijing visiting me in Hong Kong yesterday and today and he was constantly saying how fresh the air here is compared to Beijing. We obviously both did not pay attention to the news and only heard about the extreme pollution levels this evening.

[wushijiao]

I always heard it was Lanzhou, but I'm sure Linfen can compete.

[skylee]

I didn't feel bad despite the high pollution level in HK. Not sure if it was my extremely high tolerance or the fact that I stayed indoors almost all the time.

[Loriquero]

I remember not long ago I was on QQ with a girl from Linfen; she told me that very same semester like 70 kids from her school had to 退课 because of respiratory problems. She said that her biggest dream was to finish the school in order to escape from that place...

[bhchao]

I heard that Gansu and Shaanxi have the worst air pollution among the provinces because of their coal-fired plants.

[doraemon]

I've heard that Taiyuan's really bad as well.