Hong Kong's Charm Vanishes Behind Dense Smog - CSM

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HONG KONG – It is, by any standard, one of the world's most beautiful cities, a combination of towering green mountains and cobalt blue seas, capped by hundreds of white skyscrapers. Taken together it's a magnificent mix of Sydney, Rio, San Francisco, and New York.

But increasingly Hong Kong's acclaimed beauty is falling beneath a dense blanket of smog from southern China. Oil- and especially coal-burning factories and power plants in Hong Kong's neighbor, Guangdong Province, pump about 690,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air each year, compared with Hong Kong's 80,000.

Over the past four years, Hong Kong's government has made efforts to clean up its own act, by requiring that the city's aging fleet of 17,000 diesel taxis and minibuses be upgraded with catalytic converters or replaced by cleaner-burning vehicles, powered by propane, for example. Yet the air continues to worsen as the lion's share of the pollution drifts in from booming Guangdong, where there are no real environmental laws.

Hong Kong's government, fearful of upsetting Beijing, has made little real effort to raise the issue with Chinese authorities. Many in Hong Kong blame their Beijing-appointed chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, for not standing up for Hong Kong interests. Mr. Tung, critics say, is too cozy with the city's largest businesses, many of which own polluting factories in China. Hong Kong's official air-pollution index topped 200 in September for the first time - a level that is termed "severe." In some cases, children and the elderly were told to stay indoors."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1223/p16s01-sten.html