2016's most polluted city - you'll never guess where
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Photo shows the air pollution in Beijing. [Photo: Xinhua]In my family, one of the ways we celebrate Christmas and the New Year is to have a quiz. Nearly everyone takes it very seriously.

Everyone else in my family will come across bits of information during the year, have a ‘eureka’ moment, and note them down for inclusion in the end of year quiz.

Exactly that happened to me when researching this article, when I realized that ‘what was 2016’s most polluted city?’ would make a great question. And so, in the spirit of a good old Christmas quiz (albeit admittedly not in the spirit of being a journalist) you’re going to have to guess the answer.

Here are the options:

1. Beijing, China2. Los Angeles, USA3. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia4. Zabol, Iran5. Xingtai, China

And the answer is… Zabol, Iran. I think one of the reasons that this is a good quiz question is that many readers will have seen a lot of media coverage of pollution in China and the USA, and assume that these might be the correct answers.

In fact, when measured by levels of the PM 2.5 particle, there isn’t a single Chinese or US city in the top 5.

Factors that contribute to pollution in Zabol include a large number of highly-polluting vehicles, high terrain nearby that traps particles, and local atmospheric dust.

Indeed, things are so bad there, that levels are nearly 100 times the recommended limits.

Author： 　　　Source：CRI　　　 Editor：Yang Fan