Hong Kong - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the air quality like at post (good/moderate/bad)? Are there seasonal air quality issues? Does the air quality have an impact on health?
Moderate to bad, depending on whether the factories in Guangdong are functioning. - Jun 2020
Generally good to fair. We have bad air quality days, but nothing as consistently bad as other places. - Jul 2018
On its best day, and there aren't many of those, it is decent. I find most days I've lived here the pollution is pretty bad. Our family is very healthy and we have been negatively impacted by it on a regular basis. I can only imagine it could be a nightmare for anyone with health or respiratory issues. If I had known it was this bad before coming here, it would not have made the list. - Apr 2016
Very unhealthy, and unlikely to improve any time soon. There are portable air filters for our housing but I don't know how much good they do. - Feb 2015
The air quality in Hong Kong is very unhealthy and comparable to other major Chinese cities. Recently, a columnist for the South China Morning Post wrote: "In the last two months, according to the smartphone app, Airpocalypse, the AQI at the Central [Hong Kong] roadside meter has exceeded that of Beijing (measured at the U.S. Embassy) a third of the time." Today, for example, the air is 467 percent over what the World Health Organization deems "healthy." Currently, the USA has rated the air in Hong Kong (RSP/PM10) at 333 or "hazardous" and warns of "emergency conditions" and that the "entire population is likely to be affected." Last week, we saw conditions at over 600 percent of what the WHO deems healthy. Hong Kong enjoys fewer than 60 "healthy" air days per year. - Feb 2015
We live out in the Tai Tam area, which is 30 minutes outside of Central and the air is lovely. In Central itself, you can often see the pollution, but it does not bother my family. My son and I have asthma and we have had no problems. - Mar 2012
Unhealthy, and getting worse all the time. Pollution from Guangdong rolls down in waves, and gets trapped in all the smog that sits in between the mountains for days on end. Most days in the central area you feel like you are just breathing exhaust and rubber. At the worst times of the year (usually spring), everyone in the city seems to have a respiratory infection. Everyone gets coughs that last for ages. Particulate levels have reached "dangerous" many times in the last year. - Mar 2012
The air quality can be very poor, and infact is one of the few negatives consistently discussed by expats. You do get used to it, however it would be a factor in deciding whether to live here long term. - Aug 2010
Not the best. Much better than the rest of China, but it can get pretty bad sometimes with all the pollutants wafting down from the mainland China factories upriver. I tend not to notice much or be affected by it much, but others do. For about a week earlier this year, there was a particularly bad stretch where it was really bad and the pollution index literally went off the charts. You could see the thick cloud just roll in. - Jun 2010
