China might be the second largest economy in the world at the moment, but all of that progress comes with a price – that is, the speed of industrialization has resulted in round-the-clock pollution in their major cities. With fresh air being a premium, this has led to a new market – that of bottled fresh air from Canada’s Rocky Mountains being sold, as the initial shipment saw a frenzy that sold out in a matter of just four days.
What began as a joke ended up lining the pockets of some folks, as Vitality Air, the company which was founded in 2014 in the western Canadian city of Edmonton, started to sell bottled fresh air to China not too long ago. Co-founder Moses Lam shared, “Our first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days.”
Each crate shipped over there would carry 4,000 bottles of fresh air, but that shipment alone is comprised of pre-purchased bottles already for the majority of it, leaving just a small number for off-the-shelf sales. A 7.7 liter can of crisp air that is “harvested” from the Banff National Park that is located in the Rocky Mountains range would sell for approximately 100 yuan (£10), making it approximately 50 times more expensive compared to a mineral water bottle in China.