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Asia Pacific|Beijing Won Its War for Blue Skies, but Villagers Are Paying the Price
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/world/asia/china-coal-ban-air-pollution-heating.html
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China banned the burning of coal for heat around Beijing, but natural gas subsidies have run out, leaving many villagers vulnerable in dangerously cold weather.
By Vivian Wang
Vivian Wang visited villages near Beijing, in northern China, where residents were sunbathing for warmth despite freezing temperatures.
Jan. 13, 2026, 11:02 p.m. ET
The temperature was 28 degrees, but Dong Tongzhou had turned off his heat at home and was standing in the village square wrapped in a tattered black coat, trying to soak up the midday sun. He wasn’t alone — other villagers sat on folding chairs and at a card table, as chickens strutted around and clucked.
Mr. Dong, 68, used to warm his one-room home by burning coal, he explained on a recent afternoon. Then the government banned that for environmental reasons, and offered natural gas as a replacement. But that could cost three times as much. To save money, Mr. Dong often sunbathed for warmth.
Even so, Mr. Dong said he spent about 1,000 yuan, or about $143, each winter to heat his home in Quyang county, in northern China’s Hebei Province. On a monthly basis, that works out to over a third of his pension of 800 yuan as a retired farmer and former soldier.
“If it gets even more expensive and I can’t afford it, then I’ll stop using it,” Mr. Dong said. On a nearby wall, a slogan painted in red urged villagers to be mindful of safety when using gas.
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Across Hebei, which encircles China’s capital, Beijing, villagers like Mr. Dong are confronting the full cost of the country’s push for cleaner air. The central government has banned burning coal for residential heating in much of the province since 2017, in an effort to reduce the choking air pollution that enveloped the capital every winter. At first, local governments eased the transition by heavily subsidizing natural gas, which is cleaner but more expensive.
