Your own meter means very little. If you are standing next to a bus of course the reading would be huge.
So true though I’m 4 floors up and reading off my balcony. The other obvious way I check pollution level here besides with an instrument is by using my eyes to confirm. I face east and am about 10km from the mountains. Days like today it is super obvious how shitty the air is as the mountains have disappeared from sight. Most days throughout the winter I struggled to see Le Meridien Taichung which is about 2km away. It’s really an unfortunate place to spend time. I’m counting the days till I can move to a cleaner environment.
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The only reasonable reply to this topic (other than mine of course).
The most interesting thing in this thread, had no idea. Thanks!
taiwanese citys are designed like this. apartments and roads. couple of tiny parks sprinked here and there. pavents if taipei. basically you are always next to a road… which are busy most hours and full of scooters. i worry more about the buses dangerous driving more than their fumes. scooters are far more numerous.
Stop looking to explain away anything that doesn’t play into your narrative as other people’s idiocy. You’ve embarrassed yourself twice now doing that. And stop patting yourself on the back for being the only intelligent person in the room. People know how to take a reading of the air quality. People know what fog and mist are. People–other than you, of course–can see the pollution with their eyes.
It’s noon as I post this. Look out the window at your romantic morning fog/mist. Can you see it, or are you going to deny its existence again?
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@tempogain, this isn’t a matter of a tough crowd. Most people, on both sides, are willing to have this discussion in a fairly reasonable manner. One person stirred things up a while back and turned this thread toxic for whatever reason.
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It’s bad today, but before yesterday it’s been totally fine for at least a week.
You questioned it yesterday, too, don’t forget.
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It was fine yesterday. My “fine” = Yellow readings.
It’s not a conspiracy.
Because you have to ask the question where does Taichung city start and end?
For individual districts in Taichung there is less controversy. The data is clearer.
But you do know Taichung city now includes massive parts of the Central Mountains 
?
So trying to show historical records for pollution in TAICHUNG CITY is tough as Taichung city was massively enlarged just a few years ago. Taiwan EPA didn’t routinely measure PM2.5 until a few years ago either.
Plus Taiwan EPA uses a relatively lax reporting saying ‘moderare’ when it is definitely ‘unhealthy’ , stuff like that.
If the Taichung EPA and Taichung govt want to show a certain statistic (and believe me they do) then of course they are going to try and do that by playing with the data. Their job performance is linked to showing reduced air pollution year on year.
There’s a lot of controversy about pollution in Taichung and believe me it is not just on this forum.
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Just type in Taichung City into google maps and it’s quite clear where the boundaries are.
To compare apples with apples couldn’t you just compare data for Xitun and Zhongming stations across years as a representation of downtown Taichung?
Well, I’ll be unturning it, so take heart.
Thank you. We appreciate that.
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It’s not clear historically and also when the Taichung govt does it’s press releases and that’s a problem i e they are going to take an average across the whole city.
You are talking about the ‘city’ totally changing it’s characteristics in one instant. The city pollution gets ‘diluted’ with all that fresh remote mountain air.
Did you even know that they greatly enlarged the city district a few years ago ? A lot of folks don’t know that.
As I said already yes you can look at individual districts which makes a lot more sense.
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Also, some (all?) of those websites that report the air quality average it over several hours instead of reporting actual, current readings. They do that so the highs don’t look so high. (The downside is that the lows don’t look so low, but that’s paid off for them because people only look at the color and number being reported and not the sky.)
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Maybe look at the sky in addition to the color of the air-quality index. You would’ve seen a haze yesterday if you had.
So gain. I apologize. Before i thought you were being argumentative, now just realize your standards are different. If those levels are fine for you, your points above make much more sense. We were coming from the stance of wanting a clean and healthy environment so our ideals clashed.
Thats great then. Most people dont know what they want. So you want a city. Cultute, arts, clean air etc. Really, you probably need to find a way nearer Taipei. There are cheaper alternatives than downtown. Fact is taichung is a cool city. Its a pain as far as transportation but they have “liberated” lots of land and making an attempt at streamlining things more in line with kaohsiung and taipei. Frankly speaking, taichung and kaohsiung are always playing cat and mouse in pollution, but kaohsiung has a very “southern” culture and more chemical related pollution. Taichung is well known taiwan as having its own psuedo culure, but its better than the south in my experience. The pollution is probably less severe, not to say its acceptable. There are cool buildings and places to visit. Awesome. You will see them all in 6 months then youre left with shitty quality city to live in. It might improve in the next 5, mlst likely will. But if these points are your priorities, taipei…its very clear. Taichung will always have heavy pollution simply based on electricity generation and it being coal. Until we pull our heads out of our ass and start researching and developing and installing cleaner energy sources (rather than waiting for someone else to do it for us) west will always be dirty as all hog. I peraonally suggest outskirts of taipei. But traffic is a real pain up there. Still better than hampering your kids future and health though. Probably a few thousand more in rent than taichung?
@Explant Thank you. I really appreciate your replies.
You’re absolutely right.
Also keen on living a car-free lifestyle and definitely value cleaner air.
Despite the higher cost and crappy weather, perhaps Taipei is worth it.
Any specific areas?
A row of trees between the roads and houses does wonders for indoor air. If only they were smart enough to build large sidewalks here.