The bad side of living in China: the pollution. It’s often, but not always, bad throughout most of China. However, in the southern areas (ie Guangdong) the pollution is terrible. The whole of Guangdong is often covered in smog.

Sepperer Markus recently posted a photo of some pretty bad smog in Hong Kong:

The reason for the terrible polution in Guangdong? The huge number of factories in Guangdong. Guangdong is wall to wall industrial from one side to the other. Of course there are problems with environmental controls in these factories too, which makes it even worse.

This picture matches the worst smog I’ve personally experienced, which was in Guangzhou. Shenzhen, where this was taken, is only about an hour away from Guangzhou, so it’s no surprise that conditions are similar.

Smog is the one thing I don’t like about living in China.