Smog-tacular

I heard the pollution in Beijing was bad.

I coughed my way through the first few grey-skied days.

But is it bad that after a week, I don't really notice it now?

A friend recited a statistic: One day in Beijing does the equivalent damage to a person's lungs as smoking 70 cigarettes.

The measures the Chinese government have started implementing to minimise pollution in the city have possibly started working.

If I sleep with my window open, I wake up feeling like I need a hit of my asthma inhaler.

But walking in the street each day, foul smells of rotten food, poor drainage and waste facilities cause me the most anguish.

Every couple of days, the clouds lift and you can see for miles.


Until that time when the fog clears though, it's hard to see a building at the end of the road.


It just makes the handful of sunny days that little bit more special.

To have a city that supports the same population as my whole country, it is no surprise to me that this extent of pollution exists.

Yet another reason why Australia is the lucky country.