Kaohsiung was really bad yesterday. Graymageddon. Glad I don’t live there even though in many ways I vastly prefer it to Taipei and the north of Taiwan.
As I took the HSR north if was pretty bad right up to Yunlin, Taichung was only slightly visible smog and by Hsinchu was completely clear
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Very interesting. This is what I was trying to find out in terms of evaluating other places.
I really like this city, but the pollution here is highly disconcerting. Today is the worst day I’ve seen yet, and by all accounts it’s just going to get worse and worse.
How was it near Tainan?
One of the great things here is how warm the weather is. The higher north you go it seems the better the pollution is, but also the colder it gets. Taichung in the winter isn’t that cold but i haven’t been to Hsinchu.
Don’t go as far as hsinchu then. Just stick to Taichung and South. 
It is likely the greenhouse effect. Smogy concrete jungles tend to trap in the heat compared to green areas with blue skies.
In the greater Gaoping area today. Crappy as always. Mountains look ahem, “foggy”
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Some lovely dry brushed blue skies not far out from kaohsiung today. Pores already clogged and ready for shower #1 of the day.
Never can understand denying the pollution here. Included the couple random clouds in the sky so people wont say its just cloudy or foggy or some such nonsense.
Edit. This will be the face saver these couple weeks. Guess need to take a pic when its gone. Its always like this down south when it doesnt rain.
The kicker is that whatever you see on the ground - which in your pics is significant - is nothing compared to how things look when you’re on a high floor and you can see well… not much in the distance, because it’s all smogged out.
I’m considering taking trips further North to scout things out, as for a couple weeks I’ve even been able to smell the pollution at street level.
Is this entire country really a case of either getting constantly rained on (East coast) or terrible pollution (West coast, at least)?
Basically. Though the east is divided climate wise. Taitung is one of the driest places in Taiwan. Where the east rift valley closes on the north end it starts getting rainy (Hualien north).
South west gets so.e of the heaviest rai s around but concentrated in the hot season and little rain in the cooler season (hence the pollution). It would seem that lind of stays true for much of the west until start getting north.
The mountains are vriable and extreme. Would be a great place to live if they were not so dangerous.
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I can taste the gritty air on my tongue this morning.
Yes feels like I could cut out chunks of air and stack it up, I can’t remember it being this bad for a while
It’s been raining non stop here. We’ve been spared by the pollution of doom. Now most rice fields in my area have water at street level, but that’s just good training for when sea levels will go up 45 meters in the next 3 years.
It’s bad in Kaohsiung today and yesterday but before that it was moderate. In Taichung and Taipei it’s ok/good for the most part. You guys are always blowing it out of proportion.
That’s total bullshit. Terrible pollution only happens in the central/south in specific seasons sporadically.
The pics above were meant for you 
The pollution in the south is always being created. The sporadic part is the rain (not the creation of pollution) which takes air pollution and turns it magically in ground and ocean pollution. If anything it is worse in rainy season as many factories feel they have the green light to get away with illegal dumping…interestingly, also as sporadic and seasonal as the rains 
Good to keep in mind perspective. People who grew up in clean areas will think pollution is terrible. People who grew up in super polluted areas may well truly feel the pollution aint that bad. Either way, it is a hard case to make that we should be lazy about fixing it and denying its existence.
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I grew up in a clean area and I also think you’re blowing it out of proportion. God forbid someone crop-dusts in your vicinity. Sulfur levels through the roof!
Am I? How did it (poor air quality) become so normal in peoples minds? Pics show a thousand words. Just calling a spade a spade 
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In what way?
Do you think that it simply doesn’t exist, and all those air quality readouts and the visible smog is just a persistent fog, or perhaps the people of Taiwan have collectively figured out how to literally manifest their dreams and it turns out thought bubbles are actually literal clouds?
Or do you agree that this is actually pollution, that what we can all pretty much objectively see, and measure with scientific instruments – and perhaps those of us who are more sensitive to it can smell and literally taste or have other more adverse effects like have been mentioned in this thread of physical acute, rapid onset sicknesses - and are just saying that the effects of such things obviously can’t be bad given how much they look like The natural and quite pleasant phenomenon of clouds and fog (or, god forbid, based on some actual scientific evidence that says pollution is good)?
Kaohsiung is the 13th most polluted city in the world right now, even worse than Beijing, according to:
Looking at this:
You can clearly tell the winter months are terrible.
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I don’t think he’s exaggerating anything. Air soil and water pollution are absolutely rampant in Taiwan, especially central and south Taiwan.
But even Taipei city has the 16th most polluted river in the world, the Tamshui river. Somebody quoted it to me recently anyway (I need to check it) but one look or better yet smell you can see how bad it is ! It’s disgusting.
Go to wugu , zhonghe river side area and you can see where a constant river of filth is injected into the river (just where the Riverside bike path is).
You dont ofteb see people swimming in lowland rivers away from the mountains. Its not cause the water apeed all the time.
What i find more disturbing than people not playing in the water (in such a hot greenhouse effect nation) is people fishing in city ditches and concrete lined rivers. Many eat the fish, many more will sell the fish to restaurants. I wouldbt personally ever eat a tillapia in or from Taiwan.
Fun story you can check out yourself. There is one such concrete small river/large ditch in pingtung city. Directly across from the christian hospital (#24 road, blue sign)
I noticed it over 10 years ago as there is a car parking lot across the street (government has recently torn down all the buildings there). There is a small entrance to said parking lot that crosses the ditch. It is still there. There is the main ditch water and an effluent coming from the hospitals direction (the ditch from the small road that connects the ER). You can see the fiah (mostly tillapia) are all very clearly in one stream of water never daring to enter the other stream. We could speculate on why but what i can say for certain is i have been checking this ditch since 2008 and it has remained exactly the same.
Just realised this is water pollution, not air. But the scary thing is that if people not only ignore, but defend the idea the air iant polluted…then what of less visually obvious contaminants such as in soil, water and food? Medical records in hospitals kind or lean towards that as well. Taiwan needs social health care. In fact they frankly are owed it due to the pollution alone…
I thought a big part of the winter pollution was blown in from China, no?