Canadian start-up sells bottled air to China, says sales booming

(CNN)Is imported air the solution to China’s smog problem?

(CNN) 进口空气是中国解决雾霾问题的方法吗？

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.

活力空气公司表示，上个月源自落基山附近的路易斯湖旁边的500个罐装空气在中国畅销，半个月就售罄。

"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.

“现在我们已经接收到很多订单，订单数量近1000个”中国销售运行经理Harrison 说道。

The air sells for $14 to $20, depending on the size of the canister.

空气根据罐装容量的大小，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.

中国北方城市经常雾霾笼罩，尤其是在寒冷冬季中家庭和发电厂都靠烧煤来取暖。上周，北京发布了雾霾红色预警，致使学校停课，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.

活力空气公司联合创始人Moses Lam 去年在网络交易平台eBay 上看到密封袋装空气，出售99美分一袋，于是想到了这个创业想法。

"We wanted to do something fun and disruptive so we decided to see if we could sell air."

“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.

Lam，他驻扎在艾德蒙特城市，说道，他花费4个小时的车程去路易斯湖附近的班夫镇，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.

“这确实很费力，因为每罐空气都是用手包装的。我们处理新鲜空气，为了让空气保持新鲜，我们不想通过机器来包装，以免机器的油渍污染了空气，” 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记者说，进口新鲜空气不是治理中国空气污染的有效方法。

"We need to filter out the particles, the invisible killers, from the air," said Leung, who conducts research on the effectiveness of face masks. "One bottle of air wouldn’t help. I would be very cautious."

“我们需要过滤掉空气中的隐形有害微粒，” Leung说道，他在研究口罩的有效性。“一瓶空气是隔靴搔痒，我们需要谨慎看待这个问题。”

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 说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？”

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来源:CNN爱语吧作者:Cristina