Windows in the hotel are always closed, and all air that enters the Cordis Hongqiao passes through two layers of filtration. Every one of the hotel’s 396 rooms has a pollution monitor that shows the levels of PM2.5 — particulate matter so small it can get stuck in a person’s lungs. The hotel claims the air inside is usually 10 times better than outside. But the hotel isn’t alone in China, or in the region.

Indian and Chinese cities routinely lead the world in terms of air pollution. According to a 2019 report by AirVisual, the global air pollution monitoring group, seven of the 10 most polluted cities are in India. China follows close behind; 22 of the 50 most polluted cities are in that country. Now, as the two Asian economic giants attract more and more travelers, their top-end hotels are competing with each other and foreign challengers by increasingly offering guests the most basic but critical of “luxuries”: clean air.

The Cordis Hongqiao introduced its double-filtration system in 2018. The Fairmont Beijing joined up with Swedish air purification firm Blueair in 2017 to install filters in all of its more than 220 rooms. A year earlier, in March 2016, Beijing’s China World Hotel — the chain is better known globally under the Shangri-La brand name — unveiled purifiers built by American firm Honeywell in all of its rooms. Every room in the H’Elite Hotel in Guangzhou is now also equipped with an air filter.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.ozy.com