Smog in Hong Kong

Hong Kong March 23, 2010. – Five star luxury hotels along the famed Hong Kong Harbour rightly boast and regale their prized prime positions. Facing one of the most spectacular skyline views in the modern world today. They are all here, Shangri-La Conrad, Peninsula, Four Seasons, W and a soon to open Ritz Carlton. In fact even some of the more modest digs may offer a world class view. Together with the spectacular array of buildings, a buzzing Harbour all set to a back drop of sharp edged hills in the distance.


However. this story really needs to begin like a fairy tale….”Once upon a time…” as that now days is the sad truth to it all. Like Disneyland on distant Lantau Island in Hong Kong, fresh air is but a fairy tale story, so distant is the chance to actually see the view over Hong Kong Harbour.


From my very first visits here over 15 years ago, when ever you checked into a hotel, the front desk staff would offer to up sell or up grade you to a Harbour view, notably with a 50% increase in your room rate, no doubt cream on top for the Hotel revenue stream. But what can they say now…”thank you for choosing to stay with us…. now would you like a Toxic Stew View with that sir? That’s what it is now, a poisonous smoggy stew of humid air, combined with dust and pollution blown down from China along with Hong Kongs own mounting exhaust emissions. Visibility is so low the number of “potent” days of opaque glazing has doubled in the last ten years, earlier this week the level was recorded in excess of 300. A point that most cities would declare a state of emergency.


The fragrant Harbour has been fouled, and while locals and expats alike seemingly live in denial, the matter only gets worse. Forget masks for SARS or Swine Flu you need one just to get by on the streets. While we can all wash our hands to avoid the flu, one can only hope the local government wont continue to wash their hands of a crisis that, potentially is far worse and with far more enduring consequences that a bad cold.

In the past two years I have noticed slightly less denial. At least public figures are talking about it. Maybe I'm just an optimist.


BTW those medical paper mask that HKers love so much do nothing to protect you from pollution. They're about as useless as holding your hand in front of your face like lots of people do. They only masks that really make a difference are motorcycle/cyclist masks, or construction worker masks with particulate filters.

Correction, Axptguy... I think an oxygen tank would be more appropriate for HK's conditions.


Sometimes I wonder - what are we doing here, living in these conditions voluntarily?

Good point Slammy.


Orangeman, I agree with you there. It's not exactly hard to import vehicles that meet very the stringent emissions laws in California or most of Western Europe. The work of developing the regulations and vehicles is already done.

There was a debate in Legislative Council last week.


The government said it was willing to adopt the carrot and stick approach over deisel cars. As you know, right now the government offers a subsidy to encourage the car owners to upgrade to newer, more environmentally friendly models. The government wanted to also use the "stick" to legislate against such vehicles.


But the functional constituency lawmakers representing industry such as transport objected to this.


That's the problem with HK: having half the seats in Legco taken up by people representing business interests.

What is needed is for environmental consciousness to be "cool" and become such a cool thing for lawmakers that it makes them look good beyond monetary considerations. One can dream I guess.



I would love to see new diesels on the road instead of the old clunkers. Contrary to what many people think, they meet all Western European emissions standards. Very clean.