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Is imported air the solution to China's smog problem?
进口空气是解决中国雾霾问题的方法吗？
A Canadian company selling air bottled in a ski resort says it's now seeing huge demand from Chinese customers.
一家加拿大公司正在销售滑雪场的空气，这一产品受到了中国消费者的大力欢迎。
Vitality Air said that the first batch of 500 canisters filled with fresh air from the Rocky Mountain town of Banff went on sale in China last month and sold out within two weeks. "Now we're taking lots of pre orders for our upcoming shipment. We're getting close to the 1,000 mark," said Harrison Wang, director of China operations. The air sells for $14 to $20, depending on the size of the canister.
这家名为Vitality Air的公司表示，上个月源自加拿大落基山脉Banff镇的500个罐装空气在中国非常畅销，半个月就售罄。该公司中国区销售运行经理Harrison表示：“现在我们已经接收到很多订单，订单数量将近1000单。” 该公司销售的瓶装空气根据容量大小，售价从14美元到20元美元不等。
Northern China is often cloaked in smog, especially during the cold winter months when homes and power plants burn coal to keep warm. Last week, Beijing issued its first ever red alert because of poor air quality, closing schools and restricting traffic.
中国北方城市经常被雾霾所笼罩，尤其是在寒冷的冬季，家庭和发电厂都是靠烧煤来取暖。上周，北京发布了雾霾红色预警，致使多所学校停课，交通限流。
Vitality Air co-founder Moses Lam says he came up with the business idea last year after listing a bag of ziplocked air on eBay, which sold for 99 cents. "We wanted to do something fun and disruptive so we decided to see if we could sell air."
Vitality Air公司联合创始人Moses Lam去年在网络交易平台eBay上看到了密封袋装空气，每袋售价99美分，于是他就想到了这个创业想法。“我们想做一些有趣的事情，想尝试下我们是否可以卖空气。”
Lam, who is based in the city of Edmonton, says he makes the four-hour journey to Banff once every couple of weeks and spends 10 hours bottling the air.
住在艾德蒙特市的Lam表示，他要花费4个小时的车程去班夫镇，用10个小时来包装那里的空气。
"It's time consuming because every one of these bottles is hand bottled. We're dealing with fresh air, we want it to be fresh and we don't want to run it through machines which are oiled and greased," said Lam.
“这很耗时间，因为每一瓶空气都是手工装瓶的。我们处理的是新鲜空气，希望空气能够保持新鲜，我们不想让空气从沾满了各种润滑油的机器中经过。” Lam说道。
Sales in Canada are mainly for novelty value, says Lam, but in China people believe it has a real functional purpose.
空气在加拿大的销售只是图个新奇，而中国的消费者却相信罐装空气有实际性的作用。
"In North America, we take our fresh air for granted but in China the situation is very different."Wallace Leung, a professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, told CNN that buying bottles of air was not a practical solution to China's air pollution.
“在北美，我们觉得呼吸新鲜空气是理所应当的事，然而在中国却不是这样的。”香港理工大学教授Wallace Leung告诉CNN的记者，进口新鲜空气不是治理中国空气污染的有效方法。
"One bottle of air wouldn't help. I would be very cautious." said Leung.
“一瓶空气并没有什么作用，我们需要谨慎地看待这个问题。”Leung说道，
But Lam says his company's products are more than a gimmick. "If China can import food, water, why shouldn't they have the right to import air?"
但是Lam表示他们公司的空气产品并不是销售花招。“中国可以进口食物，水，为什么就不能进口空气呢？”
