Rural smoke envelops Beijing

But what are "dried stalks"? In Xinzheng City, Henan, a certain Mr. Wu was accosted on the street by two men as he tried to light a cigarette. They said they were from the town "anti-burning office" and demanded that he pay a fine of 500 yuan or they would confiscate his mobile phone. He managed to talk them down to 120 yuan, but they said he had to pay 2000 if he wanted a receipt.

Smog descends on Beijing and other cities every harvest, and it's usually urban residents who complain the loudest. But the problem is not exclusive to the cities. Columnist Chen She explains the issue in the Taizhou News, and suggests that regardless of how much official ink is spilled, the problem will not go away:

Our rural brothers are most practical. In the past when circumstances were poor, wheat and rice straw, along with weeds, were used as fuel for three meals a day, and the straw piles in front of every home were key to keeping the whole family, old and young, warm throughout all four seasons - no one would dare touch it. But today, the fuel of the past has become useless rubbish. What's the point in picking up every grain? And after you've picked it up, then what? Better to solve it with a single match, saving yourself trouble and fertilizing the field at the same time. Moreover, the family's labor is all out finding work elsewhere; taking a couple days off to hurry home for the harvest has them tired enough without taking the time to handle all that rubbish and care about "environmental protection."
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And it's not that our rural brothers are unafraid of regulations, either. Look at them over in Europe - who'd dare to light this fire? Take traffic rules, for example - even if you give their taxis a few dollars more, they won't violate the rules. Why? Their rules are strong and serious - whoever breaks them has it coming. Regardless of the reason, breaking the rules is most unprofitable. And us? Sometimes there are rules, and sometimes there aren't. When there aren't rules, you can't do anything, but when there are rules, you aren't necessarily able to do anything either. And about this straw burning, the greater part of China is shouting, year after year, but how many really effective rules are there? And I'm not the first to start burning - other people are burning, so why can't I? If other places can burn, why can't Taizhou? By the time you've issued a notice, I've already started burning - there's no fire engine, so there's nothing I can do. In addition, if I'm not burning when you come to inspect, can't I just wait until you've left and gotten off work to start? By next year, the next time you remember this stuff and issue another ban, I'll have already burnt things pretty well.
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And our rural brothers are also worried about the smoke. Urban residents cry that it's too smoky to bear, kids can't open their eyes when going to school and collide with people on their bikes, and they can't open their windows when they go to sleep at night. The environmental departments announce that air pollution is serious and the environment is in dire straits....I know all of this. The fields are much closer to our homes than to the city - it's a "serious disaster area" - young and old people in a family can't take the smoke, but what is there to do?
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Of course, no matter what, you can be comforted on one point: our rural brothers are concerned about the bigger picture. If the higher-ups send someone down to check and inspect an "environmental city," a "healthy city," or a "civilized city," or at critical times like the college or high-school entrance exams, we can guarantee that we will not burn a single stem of wheat straw, rice straw, or weeds, to ensure that there's no smoke anywhere under heaven. We'll have patience to wait until the inspection teams leave satisfied, the test-takers are released from their burdens, and you've let out a sigh of relief, and then we'll seize the opportunity to have a several-day burn.