Ironically in your first link it looks like there is a lot of pollution in the air.
I went to Beijing a few times and I’ve never been somewhere so polluted. It felt like I was inhaling directly from the exhaust pipe of a bus. My eyes watered and I couldn’t breathe. This was just stepping out from the airport. It took me a LONG time to adjust.
Can you ever wiped an alcohol-soaked cotton ball on your skin? When I was in China, it came out BLACK every time. I felt I had a constant coat of carbon monoxide.
