China has the image of being a "polluter" and a country that has been "environmentally devastated" because of its polluted air and rivers. In the spring, some people in Japan even complain of sore throats because of the yellow sand carried to the country by the wind, but Japanese may not be just "victims."

There is no doubt that a number of rivers in China are polluted and sometimes domestic wastewater and industrial sewage pours into the rivers without being properly treated. As for soil pollution, 20,000,000 ha of agricultural land, which is one fifth of the total land area of China, is said to be contaminated with chemicals according to a Chinese environmental news article. Accordingly, the first question that needs to be asked pertains to agricultural products, rather than agricultural chemicals. Concerns over "made in China" foods and cosmetics are serious, not only in foreign countries, but within China as well.

Photochemical smog is an everyday occurrence in urban areas in China. Beijing has a continuous spell of days without seeing a blue sky, particularly during the summer. Despite the sluggish economy, car sales have been increasing in China and more than 1,000 new cars are registered every day in Beijing alone. As a result of generous policies to expand domestic demand from farming villages, the number of car owners is also increasing in rural areas.

It is not that China is neglecting environmental issues for the sake of economic development, however. Environmental regulations are becoming increasingly strict. Still, the collusive relationships between local governments and companies remain strong, making it difficult for conditions to improve. In 2008, the National People's Congress of China finally decided to strengthen corporate liability regulations for pollution and blacklist the names of companies that breach regulations. This blacklist contains some familiar names of foreign-based companies.

Developed countries bear much of the responsibility for turning China into the "world's factory," taking advantage of its lenient environmental standards, low cost and low wages. In order to produce the goods that we casually use every day, something had to be sacrificed. While consumers are enjoying the convenience and economic benefits, there are likely people who can no longer drink the water from local rivers.

In recent years, treatment technologies for polluted water and waste disposal, drainage facilities and devices for measuring pollutants have become booming environmental businesses. Even the polluted water and contaminated materials of China can be a business gold mine. China is also facing the problem of desertification and a number of its rivers are drying up, which is causing water shortages. Although these issues may present business opportunities for foreign companies that hope to sell environmental technologies, they are nothing but "businesses" and fail to deal with the aftermath.

This issue surrounding these companies isn't something that we can easily deal with, but after actually living n China, there are a few things I thought of in terms of how we live. The number of foreign residents living in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai is enormous indeed. It is quite likely that it is the foreign residents who are causing the deterioration of the environment in urban areas by using cars to go everywhere, relying on air conditioning, consuming too much water and producing such a large volume of garbage.

There is a big difference in terms of living conditions and customs between the local people and foreign residents. Foreign residents, of course, need to maintain their own hygiene standards to a certain degree in order to ensure their health. Looking at the Chinese maids employed by these foreign households, however, it is apparent that the maids maintain a "LOHAS" lifestyle.

Most foreign residents, including expatriates, live in luxurious condos or serviced apartments that are far more expensive to rent than those in Japan and their lifestyle is quite different from that of the typical Chinese citizen.

In China, the heat is turned on and off at the same time for each building. In Beijing, heating starts on November 15 and ends on March 15. Many residences housing a number of foreign residents start and finish heating almost one month earlier or later than these set dates. If you live in a Hutong or a traditional single-story house called a Siheyuan on the outskirts of the city, rather than an apartment building, there is no central heating and you can turn on the heat by yourself. Chinese people, however, usually don't turn the heat on unless the temperature of the room drops to around 12 °C in an effort to save on heating costs. Instead, they wear warm underwear such as long johns, move around a lot or eat body-warming foods such as ginger and chestnuts.

Although summer air conditioning usually does not start at the same time, most houses try to cool the air by taking in the natural breeze through open windows, even in Beijing, where the temperature can rise as high as 40 °C during the day. The air conditioning in the stores isn't very strong, either. If you walk around the areas where foreign residents come and go, on the other hand, you are most likely to encounter strong air conditioning. In the evenings, when cool breezes can be felt, Chinese people go for walks with fans in hand and Chinese children can be seen munching cucumbers, which cool the bodies and are good for rehydration.

As can be seen, Chinese people use wisdom to adjust their bodies to the seasons and weather, rather than seek an artificial living environment where one can wear a short-sleeved T-shirt regardless of the season.

The Chinese also detest wasting things and take good care of their belongings. Whatever can be reused, they use it until the very end of its life. After washing cleaning rags, they ring out the water on plants or in the garden. Needless to say, clothing that children have grown out of and simple, reusable packages and snack cans are shared and reused among friends and family without fail. When going out, they carry their own tea leaves and hot water in a thermos. One maid working for a friend of mine doesn't like parchment paper, condemning it as "wasteful," making a reusable straw net for the steaming pot for her. As for food, any edible part, including the guts and feet of the chicken, are all cooked and thoroughly consumed.

In Beijing, where the air is dry, the apartment buildings that the local people live in do not have bath tubs, although they may have showers. Furthermore, many people do not shower every day. When you pass someone or walk among a crowd, some people might smell a little. This is due to the deep-rooted custom of handling water carefully, as water has always been considered precious from ancient times in China, not to mention the fact that water rates are growing increasingly higher because of recent water shortages.

What would happen to the energy and water supplies in China if all of the country's population of 1.2 billion people adopted the same lifestyle as people in the West?

Taxi drivers never leave their cars idling, since it consumes so much gas and is so costly. They always stop their engines while waiting for customers. They even get out of their cars to push them forward by hand when it is necessary to move forward one car length. This scene of taxi drivers going to all this trouble is poignant.

This is how the Chinese live, with thorough energy saving and little waste. Although some of these methods aren't easy to imitate, there are many things that would remind Japanese people of the way things were some decades ago. Now the soil of China even produces products for us. The world is intertwined in a complex manner.