Which areas in China are affected by smog?

Hello! The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is the region with the worst smog in China. When it comes to China’s smog problem, people will subconsciously turn their attention to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. When it comes to the haze problem in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the focus will naturally be on Hebei. "The ranking of the worst air quality is the area with the least fierce competition in cities. Many cities in Hebei have formed natural monopolies." People joked on the Internet. So how does air pollution in Hebei form? Is it really Hebei that drags down the air quality of the entire Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region?

Whenever there is haze in Beijing, Hebei is criticized

Zhang Yiqiang has been in Beijing for five years and has developed a unique skill over the years: human testing of PM2.5 values. It all depends on his sensitive nose. When he meets people, he says, "If you don't have allergic rhinitis, it's not enough to talk about life in Beijing."

When he gets up every morning, Zhang Yiqiang can roughly guess the smog that day based on the degree of "congestion" in his nose. Index: Half-blocked, the index can usually reach over 300; if it is completely blocked, the PM2.5 index will definitely explode. But even if my nose is blocked again, I still have to go to class. Zhang Yiqiang had no choice but to put on an anti-smog mask and plunge into the gray air. On buses and subways, there are people wearing various masks everywhere. The sides of the masks collapse and swell with the frequency of breathing.

Zhang Yiqiang works in a magazine. Sometimes four or five colleagues in the office get sick at the same time, and sneezing comes one after another. They all know that this has something to do with the haze that is so thick that it cannot be dissolved. Occasionally, his colleagues would complain that such bad air was caused by "a certain province."

Zhang Yiqiang knew that the province mentioned by his colleagues was Hebei Province, and he also knew that it was not just his colleagues who criticized Hebei because of the haze - before the 2014 APEC meeting, the Ministry of Environmental Protection also Criticizing Hebei for its ineffective response to haze: On October 13, 2014, the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that during the recent large-scale haze period, eight cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Langfang, Baoding, Xingtai, Hengshui and A special inspection of the emergency response to heavy pollution weather in Handan found that relevant cities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei responded quickly and actively, and carried out emergency response to heavy pollution weather as required; however, some cities' emergency measures were not implemented, such as Handan, Langfang and other cities. The measures are formalized, and there is insufficient coordination between urban departments such as Shijiazhuang and Langfang. Motor vehicle restrictions involving people's livelihood are also difficult to operate. Hebei Province has not yet established a unified specification for vehicle number restrictions in heavy pollution weather conditions.

But he does not agree with such complaints. He is from Shijiazhuang, Hebei. It is not out of love for his hometown that he cannot listen to his colleagues' slander about Hebei. He admits that the air in Hebei is indeed very bad. But why the air in Hebei is so bad? He believes that the reason behind this cannot be explained in a few words.

Beijing is like a watershed. Taking this as a line, the difference in air quality between cities in northern Hebei and cities in southern Hebei is surprisingly large: Zhangjiakou City, north of Beijing, had an excellent air quality rate of over 90 in 2013, listed in a report by the People's Among the "16 'Lung Cleansing' Cities" released by the official Weibo of the Daily Daily, Chengde City's air quality is slightly worse than Zhangjiakou, and its air quality excellent rate also reached 86.7. The Hebei cities south of Beijing have become the hardest hit areas for air pollution.

"Zhangjiakou's geographical location determines that there will be no long-term haze weather here." said Huang Shanjiang, director of the Zhangjiakou Meteorological Observatory. Zhangjiakou is located in northern Hebei, straddling the North China Plain and the Inner Mongolia Plateau. The abruptly raised terrain makes the continental monsoon rise and accelerate here, and the haze is unlikely to stay for a long time.

But Zhangjiakou and Chengde are protected from smog not only because of geographical reasons. Another important factor is that because they are located in the upwind direction of Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Chengde have long been in a state of restricted development in order to preserve water sources, block sand sources, and serve as ecological barriers for Beijing. "Defending Beijing, protecting Beijing, protecting Beijing" has always been Zhangjiakou's responsibility. For polluting projects, no matter how beneficial they are, Zhangjiakou will not be allowed to start.

Although Chengde is rich in mineral resources and has a solid industrial foundation, it has still closed a large number of industrial and mining enterprises in recent years and proposed a strategic transformation of "building a city with culture".

As the first big city liberated from the People's Republic of China, Shijiazhuang had a population of only 120,000 at the beginning of the liberation. This "city brought by trains" had a total of 27 companies at that time. The Hutuo River, the mother river of Shijiazhuang, has rippling blue waves all year round, and there are many springs in Zhengding County downstream. Liu Yingcai, former deputy director of the Shijiazhuang Urban Planning and Design Institute, recalled that the Soviet experts who came to provide guidance on urban construction planning were full of praise for the city construction conditions here and believed that the groundwater here was "inexhaustible and inexhaustible." No information has been found describing the air conditions that year, but one fact that can prove that the air was still good is that from March 3 to April 27, 1951, Mao Zedong briefly left Beijing to recuperate in Shijiazhuang.

But what followed was a wave of large-scale industrial construction. Peng Zhen, the mayor of Beijing at the time, stood on the Tiananmen Gate and looked south. He once said that Chairman Mao hoped to have a modern big city. He said that he hoped to look down from Tiananmen and see a field of chimneys below. At that time, chimneys were a proud symbol of China's new industrialization, both in Beijing and in Hebei. And because it is rich in coal, oil, and iron ore resources, there is the Kailuan Group, known as the "cradle of China's coal industry", Qian'an, the county with the largest iron ore reserves in the country, and the location of the North China Oilfield and the Jidong Oilfield. Hebei is positioned as a heavy industry base, and Shijiazhuang has become one of the key construction cities in the country.

During the first and second five-year plans, a total of 150 large and medium-sized enterprises in Shijiazhuang City were completed and put into operation, including North China Pharmaceuticals, thermal power plants, large textile complexes, rubber factories, pesticide factories, Fertilizer plants, coking plants, etc. have been established one after another. By 1960, the total population of Shijiazhuang urban area had reached 650,000.

In the era of the planned economy, Hebei was adjacent to Beijing and had the convenience of "making money from work", and the subsequent industrial development was "hard to recover from".

Handan is an important industrial base in Hebei. The county-level city Wu'an under its jurisdiction is an emerging city mainly focused on industry. The metallurgical industry, building materials industry and coal industry are listed as the pillar industries of Wu'an City. . In Wu'an, heavy chemical enterprises such as steel plants, cement plants, coking plants, power plants, and coal washing plants are very densely distributed, and the urban area is almost completely surrounded.

But if we look at it from the current perspective and from the perspective of the ecological environment, Shijiazhuang is located in front of the Taihang Mountains, surrounded by mountains on three sides. The terrain is like a trumpet, which is not conducive to the diffusion of pollutants and is not suitable for the development of heavy industry. . Looking at Hebei Province as a whole, the topography of Hebei is high in the west and low in the east, high in the northwest and low in the southeast. Most of the prevailing winds affecting Hebei come from the west or north direction, and the Yanshan Mountains and Taihang Mountains form an arc-shaped semi-encirclement of the plain area in the southeast of Hebei, blocking and weakening the prevailing winds, forming individual winds in the foothills. "Safe haven" where air pollutants are less likely to spread. Most of the places with abnormally high air pollution index in Hebei now have a similar situation.

But in reality, heavy industry has been developing in these areas. Taking Shijiazhuang as an example again, the main industrial products in Zanhuang County, Shijiazhuang City are cement, stone, special steel, silica sand, iron powder, etc. Industrial and mining enterprises transport large amounts of dust pollutants into the air. Luquan and Pingshan counties are located in the west of Shijiazhuang, in the upwind and water zone of Shijiazhuang, and are rich in limestone resources. In the era of "mountains to rely on, and water to flow quickly", this area became Shijiazhuang's famous "cement corridor", with peaks During this period, there were 72 cement factories and grinding stations in Yi'an Town, Luquan District alone, and the cement industry once accounted for 52% of Luquan's total tax revenue. When these high-pollution and high-energy-consuming enterprises bloom everywhere, the citizens of Shijiazhuang City are also suffering from dust and pollution.

Hebei is still in the stage of heavy industrialization. In 2012, the output value of heavy industry accounted for 80% of the total industrial output value, and the national average during the same period was 72%. Heavy industry, centered on the raw material industry, has a large demand for energy and has a large impact on the environment.

Among these industries, energy-intensive industries stand out. Hebei is a major steel province. By the end of 2012, there were a total of 148 steel companies with smelting capabilities in the province, with a crude steel production capacity of 286 million tons, more than a quarter of the country's production capacity.

In addition to steel, electricity, heat, petroleum processing, coking, chemical raw materials and other industries account for 50% of the total industrial output value. The common problems of these industries are high pollution, high energy consumption, and low efficiency. The total energy consumption accounts for 8% of the country's total energy consumption. Above-scale Industrial energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of added value is 43% higher than the national average. Excessive reliance on coal in energy consumption is also an important reason for Hebei's haze. Coal accounts for about 90% of Hebei's total energy consumption, which is much higher than the national level of nearly 70%.

On the streets of Wu'an, a mule cart carrying coal passed by the wall of a steel plant. Under the gray sky, the face of the tricycle driver was dark. The cart behind him had been stained by soot so that the original color could not be seen. White smoke was billowing out of the chimneys behind the wall. Two slogans could be vaguely seen behind the coachman, which read "Control the mess and leave the truth, goodness and beauty" and "Wu'an is our home, and cleanliness depends on everyone." Judging from the current situation, Wu'an still has a long way to go to achieve the goal on the slogan.

The relocation of industrial projects in Beijing has brought joy and sorrow to the people of Hebei. On the one hand, the transfer of these industries to Hebei has given Hebei a new impetus for economic development, but it also brings the possibility of pollution. Marked by the relocation of Shougang in 2005, Beijing kicked off the transfer of industries to Hebei. In the past ten years, in addition to Shougang and Beijing Coking Plant, the heavy casting branch of Beijing No. 1 Machine Tool Factory, the casting workshop of Beijing Internal Combustion Engine General Plant, the washing machine production base of Beijing Baiju Company, and Beijing Automobile Factory have also been transferred to Baoding, Langfang and Hebei. Cangzhou and other places. In Caofeidian District, with Shougang (renamed Shougang Jingtang Company) as the leading enterprise, there are companies in the steel industry chain. In the Harbor Development Zone, most of the companies located in the coal chemical industry chain are related to the Beijing Coking Plant (renamed Tangshan Jiahua Company).

Some companies have relocated, but there has been no qualitative leap in their environmental protection. These polluting enterprises are often "hot cakes" in the places they move to, which is why the economic gap highlights the difficulties in pollution control.

Haze control in Hebei, which is located in the lower reaches of the industrial chain, should attract more attention. Specific to the industrial layout, high-end equipment manufacturing and service industries are currently gathering in Beijing and Tianjin, and most of the companies that have settled in Hebei are heavily polluting enterprises. To completely reverse the haze-covered Gyeonggi Province, the plan should be based on a larger geographical area. It should take environmental resources as the background and treat people and natural resources as an organic whole to fully coordinate the interests of all parties. On this basis, everyone comes to examine the production methods and life patterns of this region. Only by treating Hebei as its own backyard, sharing development opportunities with it, and providing maximum support in terms of industrial layout and division of labor can Beijing and Tianjin truly dispel the haze.

Thanks for reading!