The smog in Beijing may incite a great exodus, causing the loss of high-end talents (Photo: Li Hao/GT)
Pan Pingzi works in the media industry and has lived in Beijing for 15 years. He was born in Su Zhou, Jiangsu Province, and has always thought of Beijing as his second home, and a place that he will grow old in. However, 15 days before the Spring Festival, he will jump on a plane and leave the city he once called home because of the smog.
"I have been living in Beijing for 15 years. I am very in love and grateful for the city. If it weren't for the smog, I would have lived in Beijing for the rest of my life," Pan said. "But now, I must leave, because for me clean air is a basic need in order to survive."
Pan has been documenting the process of his great escape from what he calls "the capital of smog" on WeChat, and many of his friends resonated with him. They also say that they cannot bear the polluted air in Beijing, and they have plans to leave the city in the future themselves.
Take the last month of 2016 for example, since December 30, Beijing has issued the smog orange alert, which means the visibility is less than two kilometers, and the PM2.5 is between 150 to 250, or the visibility is less than five kilometers, and the PM2.5 is between 250 to 500. The alert lasted for nine days into the first week of the new year, according to a report by China National Radio's official website cnr.cn on January 7.
Pan is not the only Beijinger that will, or has already escaped the city.Many people in Beijing expressed in social media like WeChat Moments and Sina Weibo that the long periods of smoggy days have become the last straw, and now they want to escape the smoggy city to other places where clean air is available.
The smog, showing no sign of changing for the good, is leading many people in Beijing from different social classes and backgrounds to make the decision to leave.
Experts have predicted the same trend. In an article on the official website of the National School of Development at Peking University on January 4, 2016, Wang Dingding, an economics professor from Peking University, said that he predicts if the smog issue in Beijing continues, one of the biggest problems the city is possible to face is loss of people.
He added that Beijingers will choose to move to smaller Chinese cities, and more Chinese middle class and rich will choose to immigrate to another country on the premise that the polluted air is medically proven the main cause for some serious problems such as lung cancer, cardiology problems and depression.
We don't have to live like this
Pan said that whenever the smog comes, he feels like he is suffocated, and that he is nothing but a human vacuum.
"I travel a lot because of my job. I went to the rural area in China, Sri Lanka, and hiking in the Arctic Circle. Every time I came back to Beijing, I realized how different Beijing is from other places, and that I do not have to live like this. I deserve to at least be able to breathe in the air freely with no worries," he said.
After leaving Beijing, Pan will spend most of his time running a hostel called Guoyunshanju he and his friends built in Songyang County, Zhejiang Province, his other time will be split between his hometown Suzhou and traveling abroad.
In contrast to Pan, who is choosing to stay in China, many Chinese choose to leave the country all together. Leona Chen, a 27-year-old girl in Beijing is one of these people.
Chen lived in Canada for eight years for university and work, and afterwards went back to Beijing for more work opportunities. However, she decided to go back to Canada after living in Beijing for a few years.
"Every time the smog comes, my throat and head hurt, and I would even feel depressed, unable to lift my spirits for anything," Chen said.
"We don't know how smog will influence our health long term or whether it will cause serious problems, and the unknown really scares me," she said.
