One way to reduce smog in Beijing is to reduce emissions at their source by restricting factory and vehicle operations. That’s what happened for the recent September 3rd parade, the APEC summit, and the 2008 Olympics. But since special international events don’t happen in Beijing everyday, the city has stumbled onto another way: simply blowing smog away so it becomes someone else’s problem.

After first revealing its plans last year, local officials announced they will “construct” a number of air corridors designed to “ventilate” the city and blow away stagnant smog from the city center.

Following the lead of other Chinese cities like Shanghai and Fuzhou, Beijing will construct five primary “ventilation corridors”, each 500 meters in width. Other secondary ventilation corridors will measure at 80 meters in width.

Wang Fei, deputy head of Beijing’s urban planning committee, said the ventilation corridors will be created by connecting the city’s parks, rivers and lakes, highways, green belts, and low building blocks.

However, “constructing” isn’t exactly the right word to use in this case. A ventilation corridor isn’t a building or structure, but the lack of many of them. It’s created by the absence of urban development like high-rises that have cropped up around the capital. The thinking goes that since space has been created in the dense urban jungle of Beijing, air will therefore have room to circulate.

Because a ventilation corridor is made of negative space, this will require the halt to building structures in the city or the demolition of existing ones, though no specific details were revealed in Saturday’s announcement. As Wang revealed, construction in these zones will be strictly controlled, and “obstacles” along the way will be gradually removed.

However, not everyone is optimistic that air corridors will solve Beijing heinous air pollution problem that saw the city issue its first-ever smog red alert last year.

Yang Baojun, chief planner of the China National City Planning Design Research Center, described the designing of wind corridors as “difficult”. Yang added that Beijing’s air pollution is due to surrounding polluting factories and dependency on burning coal, which is slated to be outlawed but continues at the present time.

Environmental protection expert Peng Yingdeng also voiced his criticism of the ventilation corridors, describing their implementation as “too perfect“. Peng warned that the difference between a plan and actually implementing it is tough when money is involved, saying, “It’s not uncommon for [needs of] the city’s ecology to give way to economic development.”

Whether or not a ventilation corridor can be successful in making winds blow in Beijing, the capital faces a unique geographical challenge that the new plans may not be able to overcome. Beijing is situated in a valley ringed with mountains, making it an ideal position to fortify yourself against an attacking enemy. However, the ringed valley also acts as a “bowl” that is effective at keeping smog lingering over the city.