Free Republic

China has deployed 11 highly trained professionals to sniff out foul gases and other dangerous chemicals in the air of what is rapidly becoming one of the most polluted countries. The State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Controlling Evil Odours and Pollution in the northern city of Tianjin had put its students on a rigorous – if somewhat unpleasant – course, which involved sniffing 25 bottles of liquids with various odours. “We have to stay in a lab smelling those awful gases repeatedly,” Liu Jingcai, deputy director of the bureau, said. The 11 newly fledged experts, all working for the...

Not far from the old Silk Road, Chinese government scientists have begun boring holes deep into granite in the first steps toward building what could become the world's largest tomb for nuclear waste. As governments worldwide look at nuclear power as a possible answer to global warming, China has embarked on a nuclear-plant construction binge that eventually could exceed the one the United States undertook during the technology's heyday in the 1960s. Under plans already announced, China intends to spend $50 billion to build 32 nuclear plants by 2020. Some analysts say the country will build 300 more by the...

Discarded cigarette packets, fast food wrappers and even old socks litter the shores of Lau Fau Shan in Hong Kong’s far north, home to what remains of the territory’s oyster farming industry. From across the border in China, factories belch smoke into the fetid air over Deep Bay, one of Hong Kong’s most polluted stretches of water. Ten years after the territory was handed back to the Chinese, pollution is one of the biggest problems facing the former British colony as it bears the environmental consequences of China’s rampant economic growth. For around a third of last year, Hong Kong’s...

BEIJING - A pale orange sun hangs low over the evening rush hour, a brake-light procession of Mercedes, matchbox-size taxis and accordion-style buses that cuts through a canyon of skyscraper construction cranes. On this spring evening, as on most days, this city of 15 million souls is wrapped in a churning brown gauze of foul fumes and gritty dirt. "It's a pretty strong cocktail of dust particulates, industrial and automotive pollution," observed Jeremy Goldkorn, a 12-year Beijing resident and Internet entrepreneur. "It's something a lot of expatriates, especially people from Northern California, find very difficult. You blow your nose and...

The lives of residents in a village in northern China are being destroyed by high rates of cancer and what is claimed to be cerebral palsy among their children yet no one has come up with an answer. With one of his meaty hands, Xing Fengshan pushes a red and gold box of Honghe cigarettes across the table to me. We haven't even eaten lunch and the thickset northern Chinese has all but smoked his way through a whole packet. A thought flickers across my mind that I should warn him of the dangers to his health. Yet such...

About 60 percent of Chinese cities still suffer from air pollution and have no centralized sewage treatment facilities, according to a report by the State environment watchdog. The report, issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) yesterday, rated air and water pollution as major environmental problems in the urban areas of 585 cities. The air quality in only 37.6 percent of the cities was above Grade II, a national standard indicating a clean and healthy environment. The figure was 7.3 percentage points lower than for 2005. Thirty-nine cities, four less than the number in 2005, were put on SEPA's...

Guiyu is a modern day gold rush town. But instead of panning for gold in babbling streams, workers shift through piles of broken old computer parts in acrid smelling shacks, smelting down parts with crude equipment to extract valuable metals like gold and copper. Every year, millions of unwanted computers, keyboards, television sets and cell phones are smuggled into China by sea. Much ends up in Guiyu, a rough town on the southern Chinese coast, not far from the former British colony of Hong Kong. There is little regard for safety—no masks, little ventilation and few signs of government officials...

The water purity of a river tapped to make China's national liquor is being threatened by uncontrolled building of other drinks factories along its banks, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. Kweichow Moutai, maker of the fiery Maotai drink served at Chinese state banquets and used to toast guests ranging from Margaret Thatcher to Kim Il-sung, draws water for the brew from the Chishui River in remote southwest Guizhou province. But authorities are investigating how 39 illegal alcoholic drinks plants have sprung up by the river, polluting both the air and water, Xinhua said. "It seriously threatens the...

China's leadership knows the Olympics may define the country's international image for decades. So officials have spared nothing in their efforts to show how green they can be. On clear days it's now possible to look down Changan Avenue and see the peaks of the Western Hills, which had been obscured for years. Most homes and businesses have converted from coal heat to natural gas, many diesel-belching tractors and trucks have been banned from city streets, and 58% of sewage is treated. Beijing has moved nearly 130 factories out of the city and is building cleaner, gas-fueled power stations while...