Clean air has become a rare commodity in China, and villagers in China’s southern province of Guangdong are capitalizing on it.
With slogans such as “Buying Air Is Buying Health,” “Air Without Any Industrial Pollution,” “Air With the Highest Amount of Anions in Guangdong ,” and “Air from 1,400 Meters Above Sea Level,” villagers of Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County are peddling clean air packaged in plastic bags to tourists visiting the local Jinzi Mountain, reported Chinese news portal Sina on March 20. A big bag of air goes for 30 yuan (about $4.60), and a small bag, 10 yuan.
While some tourists simply posed for pictures with the bags, and were content to simply enjoy the clean air freely available, others haggled with the vendors and brought some bags home.
Zhi Chenglin, a Jinzi Mountain local, was first to come up with the idea of selling air in plastic bags. Zhi told Sina that he got tired of inhaling smog after working for a delivery company in Guangzhou for three years, and decided to get a job back home. He hopes that his business will remind people living in the cities to cherish a clean environment.
