Well, simply put. Its bad. But it was muuuuch worse before.
This goes for Beijing specifically due to historic and geographic reasons.
When I came here the PM 2.5 (particle density yadayada) was 400 on normal days and 200 was a "good" day. Something that would cause riots back home in EU.
After that it just got worse and worse until we peaked 1k, which we nicknamed the Airpocalyps.
After that the gov started to do a lot of things and magically around the time Beijing hosted the APAC 2014 meeting, the skies cleared and we remembered the smell of nature, I also could not stop looking at the moon at night, since I didn't realize that I hadn't been able to see if for a long time.
After that the 75 year military parade to celebrate the Victory over Japan came along and made the sky magically blue again, and we have not really gone back after that.
Its still bad (~150 PM 2.5) at the moment, but its not stable bad. When the humidity is high particles stick around longer, when it rains it clears up the pollution too.
(Where does it go? I dont want to know.)
But, we have 20+ expensive air cleaners at work, I have one at home and I always put on a M3 mask on days when its above 200.
We also awesome people here who tackels these problems in great ways.
http://smartairfilters.com/
I bought their products for my home.
If you want to eat healthy there is alternatives but might require some research and a little knowhow.
As for the totalitarian thing, don't rock the boat.
When I came here the PM 2.5 (particle density yadayada) was 400 on normal days and 200 was a "good" day. Something that would cause riots back home in EU. After that it just got worse and worse until we peaked 1k, which we nicknamed the Airpocalyps.
After that the gov started to do a lot of things and magically around the time Beijing hosted the APAC 2014 meeting, the skies cleared and we remembered the smell of nature, I also could not stop looking at the moon at night, since I didn't realize that I hadn't been able to see if for a long time.
After that the 75 year military parade to celebrate the Victory over Japan came along and made the sky magically blue again, and we have not really gone back after that.
Its still bad (~150 PM 2.5) at the moment, but its not stable bad. When the humidity is high particles stick around longer, when it rains it clears up the pollution too. (Where does it go? I dont want to know.)
But, we have 20+ expensive air cleaners at work, I have one at home and I always put on a M3 mask on days when its above 200.
We also awesome people here who tackels these problems in great ways. http://smartairfilters.com/ I bought their products for my home.
If you want to eat healthy there is alternatives but might require some research and a little knowhow.
As for the totalitarian thing, don't rock the boat.