Regular pollution incidents in Beijing are putting off tourists who want to visit Beijing. The Chinese government recently announced to set up a budget to fight pollution in the most affected cities in the country…
BANGKOK- Over 800 million dollars or five billion of Yuan. This is the amount that the Chinese Government has decided to spend to fight against the pollution in six regions within the country. The six regions eligible for the funds are Beijing and the neighbouring city of Tianjing as well as the provinces of Hebeii, Shanxi, Shandong and Inner Mongolia. The government’s move comes at a time of rising anger by the Chinese public which is eye-witnessing a serious degradation of their living conditions in large cities. It also affects tourism as some visitors are getting reluctant to come into China. Pollution is certainly a deterrent factor for some travellers who do not want to put their health at stake.
The fund will be provided to the provinces which will be able to show real progress in their efforts to fight pollution. The government will look at their investments, pollution reduction targets and will of course measure the particles in the air.
The provinces of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia are among China’s top coal-producing provinces and have been a major source of air pollution. Inner Mongolia especially suffered over the summer from thick fog lasting for many days.
The rapid economic development of China has been unfortunately accompanied by rising pollution levels. All along 2013, gruesome stories concerning pollution have surfed in social and even official media. It started in January with neverending smog over Northern China, followed by the discovery of dead pigs in a river supplying water to Shanghai, then with lasting pollution clouds and fume in Inner Mongolia than in Beijing during the summer. In October, the city of Harbin in Northeastern China was virtually shut down as thick smog filled the sky for many days.
Authorities have invested in various projects to fight pollution and even empowered courts to mete out the death penalty in serious pollution cases. Beijing is also initiating new initiative to control pollution in a more efficient way. With its skies regularly shrouded by a filthy gray smog, officials in the capital want to reinforce controls. They mulled out a solution which was used during the Olympic Games to restrict circulation to cars by only allowing alternatively even or odd registration plates. Other measures would comprise a mandatory closure of factories and bans on cars entering the city on days when pollution levels are particularly high.
The city’s Heavy Air Pollution Contingency Plan stipulates that when there is “serious pollution for three consecutive days,” a warning system will be activated with four levels -blue, yellow, orange and red. Kindergartens and schools would then be closed while 80% of government-owned cars would be forced to remain parked.
In total, the Chinese government announced in July to invest up to US$ 277 billion to take measures against air pollution over the next five years. A good move for the health of Chinese citizens and foreign travellers and also for the image of the country!
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
