The air pollution is so bad in China that people will breathe air imported from the mountains.

Residents of Zhengzhou, the pollution-racked capital of China’s Henan province, received a treat on Saturday when they were provided with bright blue bags of fresh mountain air.

Zhengzhou is none of China’s top 10 most polluted cities, according to the country’s environmental ministry.

A Henan travel agency brought in twenty bags of air as a publicity campaign to encourage the impoverished, smog-ridden community to take a load off and visit Laojun Mountain. According to the article, the few lucky residents, who were limited to a few minutes each with the bag, "tried to wring the bags in order to extract every bit of air possible."

If photos of people hungrily breathing in clean air aren't enough of a wake-up call, consider that Henan has been selling canned air to its residents for more than a year. The province is one of the most polluted areas of the world, but it may not be long before we see this trend happening closer to home.

But at least for now, things aren't that bad here, although in August something like this might fly in Bakersfield, California, especially if you could keep the air chilled, as if it had just flowed over a snowfield.  What would people pay, five bucks for a bag?