Expat view: Dealing with pollution at home

Smog drives me out of Beijing

I have been preparing to leave Beijing for about 18 months now. I have a location which is a third tier city and most of my work is online so I can do that from any location.

To me, as another 10-year expat in Beijing, I find this place NOT THE SAME as it was 10 years ago. Lao Beijing is gone and I miss it dearly.

Money is not the most important thing in the world, health is. Because without your health, then all the money you earned will be given to some place to get you healthy again.

I do not care if it's for this reason or another reason, the bottom line is that the air in Beijing is so toxic and I find it shameful that I had to take my visiting family members to another city.

They disliked Beijing within 24 hours due to the air, not to mention house prices have gone up about 500% since 2003. So what did I do?

I moved far out into Changping district, away from the high prices, over populated areas and heavy noise, traffic and pollution.

Lostalien from the US