North China farmers pay heavy price this winter for Beijing’s clean air success

In the daytime the temperature in northern China often stays below freezing, but for many rural villagers the prohibitive cost of heating means that they have little choice but to endure the cold. “We dare not turn on the heating during the day,” one woman from Guan county in Hebei named Wang said. The 75-year-old’s home is around 70km (43 miles) from the centre of Beijing, but running the heating all day would cost between 60 and 90 yuan (US$8-13), an expense that could soar over the course of...