The growing issue of air pollution in China has caused several of its residents to plan “smog escapes” in search of clean air in far-flung places such as Iceland and Antarctica.

Online searches for keywords including “smog escape”, “lung cleansing” and “forests” were found to have tripled in the midst of the country’s ongoing smog problem, according to the “Smog Escape Travel Ranking” survey by Ctrip, a travel search website based in Shanghai, Bloomberg reports.

An elderly man walking through heavy smog at a the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing in December 2016 Credit: Getty

The Seychelles, the Maldives and Iceland are among the destinations residents think will offer the freshest air, according to Ctrip, while Phuket in Thailand, Bali, Jeju Island in South Korea and the city of Sanya on Hainan Island in south-east China are among the most popular island getaway spots sought by Chinese tourists.

Heavy pollution levels have led 62 Chinese cities, including Beijing, to issue health alerts. Pollution was found to be at medium or higher levels in 186 cities, and 25 have been issued with red alerts – the highest warning level – by the country’s ministry of environmental protection.

While most of the pollution stretches from the south-west to the north-east of China, residents of the capital were found to be most keen for a smog escape, according to the report by Ctrip.

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The recommended level of exposure to PM2.5 particles – ones that pose the greatest health risks – is no more than 25 micrograms per 24 hours, according to the World Health Organisation.

But the concentration of these particles was measured to be 475 micrograms per cubic metre around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square earlier this month.

Dozens of cities in China spend many winter days under a thick, grey haze, caused chiefly by thousands of coal-burning factories and a surplus of inefficient vehicles. Locals can be seen walking around the city wearing masks, while others remain in office buildings to avoid the toxic air.

Earlier this month, officials in Beijing announced it would be deploying a new environmental police force to help fight the war against smog, focusing on pollution from open-air barbecues, garbage incineration and the burning of wood and other biomass.

The city also said it would be closing 500 factories that have been a source of pollution, while 2,560 other companies would be forced to clean up their operations. High-polluting vehicles will also be restricted in the city from next month, the Beijing Daily reports.

“The root cause of the region’s smog problems, from a long-term perspective, is the unclean industrial and energy mix, which require big changes,” Chen Jining, the country’s minister of environmental protection told the Xinhua News Agency.

The ministry is reviewing emergency plans for the 20 cities in the country facing the highest amount of air pollution, the minister said.

The Beijing Tourism Development Commission also reported a 24 per cent decrease in visits to the city’s popular tourist sites, dropping to 1.84 million visitors between December 31 and January 2. But the cause for the decline is unclear and wasn’t specifically attributed to the city's air pollution problem.