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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

I did grad school in SLC and they suffer from the same geographical/topological problems as Beijing: both cities are basically bowls trapped in by mountains on all sides, where wicked inversions often occur in the winter that trap pollution in with no relief until the winds blow in. Now for this from the article:

> For weeks, industrialized cities in northern China have been dealing with bouts of sickening smog several times more toxic than Utah's. But by U.S. standards, Utah's pollution index is off the charts with readings routinely exceeding a scale that tops out at 70 micrograms a cubic meter. The EPA sets a standard for clean air at no more than 35 micrograms.

70 AQI, talk about first world problems! Right now in Beijing its around 90, and that is considered very good for us! Last night was 486, and I was crazy enough to go for a walk. Many of us laowai in Beijing get depressed in the winter because of the poor air quality.

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> Many of us laowai in Beijing get depressed in the winter because of the poor air quality.

I'm confused about the implication here. Are westerners (laowai) more prone to getting depressed from poor air quality? Chinese (native/migrant) aren't affected?

I'm sure someone from Kunming moving to Bejiing would get depressed also, but someone who grew up in northern China might just see it as normal.

Depression often has to do with standards and expectations, not necessarily the situation itself. Edit: or to say, its about the relative situation between the past and present. If the present has been stable, good or bad, then you won't get into a funk.

For example, say you fly economy your whole life, its not great, but you are perfectly happy with it, then one day you get magically bumped up to business...and oh my god you can sleep on your 9 hour flight! But you can't afford to ever fly business again...so you get depressed whenever you fly economy.

As a westerner in beijing, i think everyone is affected the same by air pollution, though the difference is the "choice" of being here vs. not.

You can see first hand the difference between the Beijing sky and that in Boston. http://sdrv.ms/10T8oof

I feel more depressed in the summer time when the air pollution is high. In the summer, the pollution feels smothering and then the oppressive heat of the city can be overwhelming.

In the winter Beijing somedays just feels smokey.

Beijing summer high AQI is nowhere near winter high AQI! Summer, you have rain, wind, and all the nice stuff that blows out the pollution. Summers in Beijing just feel bad because its hot and muggy + some pollution mixed in.

We are all affected the same sure enough, but our* expectations might be higher since back home we think "90" is high, when in Beijing that is almost a clean air day. The rest of north and central China is pretty much the same, while the southerners and definitely the westerners (like, west of LanZhou) will complain about the AQI in Beijing just as much as the foreigners do.

* There are many countries with problems as bad or worse than China. If you come from one of those countries, then Beijing might not seem so bad.

Agreed, about the pollution levels. My personal view is that the summer is far more depressing (heat, muggy, pollution) then the air in the winter. After 3 years in beijing, most Beijing people talk about the pollution far less, than housing prices, getting a Beijing hukou...

When we foreigners get together, we talk about pollution and the GFW since most of us don't hope to buy a house or get hukou :)

There's surely some degree of acclimation that has much to do with how much time you spend outside.

It makes sense a foreigner who (I assume) can hole up on bad days would feel the grodiness more acutely.

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