Everything you’ve heard about Beijing’s horrible air is true. After I arrived, it took ten days before I saw blue sky.
Ten days.
On a typical day you can stare directly at the sun because there’s so much smog in the air.
When I lick my lips while outside (a favorite pastime in the cold, dry weather), they taste like saran wrap.
It seems like Beijing’s terrible air is caused by industrial pollution and car emissions more than anything else. As such, the pollution floats relatively high in the air and is non-abrasive. In contrast, the pollution in Pingyao came mostly from coal smoke and a huge copper smelter. That pollution seemed heavier, hung lower in the air, and was much more aggravating to the ENT tract.
The US Embassy in Beijing posts readings from their air quality monitors at twitter.com/BeijingAir. That link isn’t accessible from China due to censorship of twitter; however, the government’s firewall doesn’t block the site’s RSS feed.
Usually, the feed is depressing:
Every time I look at this I think, What’s it doing to my lungs?
If I were to give one piece of advice to people coming to Beijing, it would be, Buy a sinus rinse kit before you come. The kit consists of a plastic bottle and hundreds of packs of salt and baking soda. Put the salt/soda in the bottle, fill with water, then hold the thing to your nose and squeeze. Yes, it’s embarrassing and gross to think about, but the damn things worked. I used it while in Beijing and didn’t get one sinus infection or any respiratory problems. The darn things work. Buy one before you go, or have some sent over. They’re worth it.
You’re a young non-smoker; you can take it.