“Hong Kong pollution leaves tourists choking”

Hong Kong pollution leaves tourists choking - Yahoo! News

- Green activists said that Hong Kong’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry was at risk after a survey found half the visitors to the city had complained of the worsening air pollution.

Friends of the Earth Hong Kong said the poll of tour guides also found that one in ten tourists suffered pollution-linked health problems while visiting the semi-autonomous southern Chinese territory.

The poll of more than 150 tour guides and agents who accompanied overseas and mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong also found that 40 percent of visitors were aware of the city’s pollution problems before arriving.

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The government has said most of the pollution rolls in from mainland China’s heavily industrialised Pearl River delta region, which has seen huge economic growth in the past decade.

However, Friends of the Earth Hong Kong and local campaigners Clear the Air say local power producers are also major culprits.

“The pollution is not ‘coming down from China’,” said Annelise Connell, chairperson of Clear The Air, in a statement.

That’s something I certainly do recall from my trip to Hong Kong late 2004. Having seen all those famous postcards of clear blue sky and mountain ranges, and then seeing nothing but yellow smog was pretty disappointing.

That said, I do think that most of the pollution is from the China side - after all, Macau was also incredibly smoggy.