XUSHUI: With the majority of gas subsidies being phased out, peasants in northern Hebei province are finding it difficult to pay their heating bills nearly ten years after China started reducing coal burning to prevent dense winter smog.
Beijing ordered dozens of northern regions to switch from coal-fired stoves to electric and natural gas-powered ones in 2017. According to local media this week, China’s central government set aside money to refit stoves, but after three years, the subsidies stopped, and further aid has sharply decreased. Villagers in Xushui, a Hebei district around 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Beijing, told AFP they didn’t turn on the heater since it reduced their earnings.
The average person cannot afford it. No one can afford to spend 1,000 yuan ($143) a month for heat, a resident in his 60s told AFP at a farmers’ market. The clean air is something that everyone enjoys. He asked to remain anonymous out of concern for “trouble,” saying, “There’s not a single person that doesn’t like it.”
The highest temperature on the sunny, clear day AFP visited was little below six degrees Celsius, while the lowest temperature was minus seven. According to Yin Chunlan, a restaurant employee, her elderly in-laws must spend up to 7,000 yuan annually on heating their six-room house.
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