People living and working near two monitoring stations in Foshan city are happy with air quality in their neighbourhoods, even though the two sites have the worst recorded air pollution in the Pearl River Delta. The sampling stations, in Huijingcheng and at the Shunde party school, had the highest average air pollution of 13 monitoring stations in Hong Kong and the delta for the six months to June. The findings were published last week by Hong Kong and Guangdong environmental officials, who last November set up a cross-border air quality monitoring network. Huijingcheng had the highest level of sulfur dioxide, at nearly double the national target. The Shunde party school station had the highest reading for airborne particulates, with a maximum daily reading in January of 450 micrograms per cubic metre - nine times the new World Health Organisation standard. But people living near the two monitoring stations yesterday said they were quite satisfied with air quality, and claimed they were living in the cleanest parts of Foshan. Huang Tianming, a 38-year-old who has lived in Foshan for 20 years, has just moved into an apartment next to the Huijingcheng station. His family spent 400,000 yuan on the apartment because they 'would like to live in a place with clean air', he said. 'It's the best place in the Foshan downtown areas and I think the air quality here is reasonably good,' Mr Huang said. 'If it's not the case, [why] would I have spent all my savings buying a flat here?' He added: 'If it [Huijingcheng] is not good for living, all Foshan citizens would have to migrate to other cities.' Foshan native Zhu Qiaoer, a manager of a real estate agency in Huijingcheng, said that house prices in the area were the highest in the city. Mr Huang and Ms Zhu admitted air quality in Foshan had been deteriorating for the past decade. They said the Nanzhuang, Zhangcha and Xiaotang areas, home to many factories, were the more polluted areas. People living next to the Shunde party school also believe they are living in the cleanest place in the region. 'If it's not a good place, the party schools of Shunde and Foshan wouldn't have moved here,' said farmer He Jiansen, of Yinchong village.
