Hand-held fans to tackle Beijing smog

Beijing: A Chinese man has proposed a bizarre plan involving 1.5 million people with hand-held fans to tackle the capital city's smog, a media report said on Monday.

The man, Du filed an application with the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) in March in the hopes of turning his "fan-away smog plan" into reality, the Global Times report said.

According to Du's calculations, the plan could move more than 1 trillion cubic metres of air over the distance of a metre, enough to disperse Beijing of its smog.

All it would take would be 1.5 million residents fanning at the same time in one direction for an hour.

Du touted the method as a low-cost, effective solution to China's smog problem, the Global Times reported.

However, it seems unlikely Du will have his day.

An SIPO official said that the application was in the initial stages and not under "essential review," which could take up to 18 months.

Most applications do not make it past this stage, the official said.

"If the applicant does not submit a review request within three years, the application will be withdrawn."