China’s Air is So Bad that a Restaurant Charged Diners Extra to Breathe Clean Air

December 14, 2015

A restaurant in China’s Jiangsu Province surprised customers by tacking on an “air purification” fee to their bills.

The restaurant, based in Zhangjiagang, charged an extra 1 yuan (15 cents) per diner in order to pay for operation costs incurred by several air filtration machines it had recently purchased, South China Morning Post reports.

Customers were charged the fee without warning, which led to the city’s consumer pricing bureau to investigate. The bureau ordered the restaurant to stop charging the fee for air purification, which it said was the restaurant’s responsibility.

The idea of paying for clean air, however, found supporters on Chinese social media. One Weibo user wrote: “I am willing to give an extra yuan [for purifying the air].”

The Chinese capital of Beijing has been blanketed with a hazardous smog for weeks. The air pollution has been so bad that, earlier this month, a Beijing-based artist was able to form a brick from the city’s air particles.

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