At this point, I guess it's kind of cliche to write a post about the pollution in Beijing. It's the first thing everybody who I know told me to watch out for before I came here. The first night I arrived, it was crystal clear. The following day, it was sunny and beautiful. I was thinking, "this isn't so bad!" But sure enough, when it rains, it pours. Or in this case, when it smogs it umm… fogs.
The pollution is measured in micrometers. For a while, Beijing was only publishing figures on PM 10 (micrometers), making the pollution seem not as bad as it is. The US embassy, however, with it's wee lil' twitter feed, upset the masses by posting info on PM 2.5, which is apparently just as if not even more dangerous than PM 10.
The scale goes from 0-500 micrograms (of pollution) per cubic meter of air. You can check out the scale here: US Embassy Beijing AQI. It's color coded…Green and Yellow are ok. Anything above that and I feel like I need to wear a mask. Orange isn't so bad, but it's bad enough to irritate me because I have sensitive airways. We wear these souped up 3M masks here which are supposed to be good at filtering PM 2.5. I do believe they work, but you see these masks with extra filters attached to the outside. Those are the ones I want. They are supposed to even be able to block smells…which would be great because there are plenty of nasty smells to go around here.
The pollution was so bad one day (upwards around 700) that it was literally off the charts and the US Embassy had to come up with a new category which they dubbed "crazy bad". Haha. As a result, the US embassy really upset Beijing's citizens because they started demanding that the Chinese government start posting numbers as well on PM 2.5. So I thought that was pretty funny that just from their little itty bitty piece of land where the embassy lies, they upset the masses…the pen, as they say, is mightier than the sword.
Now since I've been here, we've had a few green days and a few yellow ones, but we've also had purple and brown ones a plenty. It seems like the average condition here is "Red", which is "very unhealthy". Right now it's 309 which is "Hazardous". (I downloaded an app for my phone where this little cat wears a mask at red and purple, then at brown his eyes are "x"'ed out. :)) And those green days may have been more of an anomaly than usual. Just recently there was a huge meeting of the "people's congress" in Beijing where all the big wigs were in attendance so I'm sure they shut the factories down for that.
It is estimated that 300,000 people die prematurely each year in China from air pollution. Very few Beijing locals wear masks and you can see where those figures come from, because this stuff is not to be played with. I've been hearing stories of Beijinger's hacking up and spitting everywhere all the time… and they do. But now I know why. It's cause they're trying to clear all that grime out of their throats. It's actually really sad when you think about it. But they trudge on. My feeling from Beijing people is they are down to earth, very moral and easy to relate to on a human level. I hope things improve for their sake!
We need not fear though because the government has a "war on pollution"! We're all quite familiar with policy "wars" in the US such as the "war on drugs" or the "war on poverty" and their efficacy. It doesn't take a genius to read between the lines on this one. This is one of the actual proposed solutions to the problem: send unmanned drones which spray a chemical into the atmosphere to literally freeze smog and let it fall to the ground. You can't make this stuff up.
Anyway, it's been a roller coaster here for me so far in Beijing. One hour I'm walking around in the smog and cursing Beijing and then the next, I'm chowing down on some exquisite Chinese cuisine in some fantastic restaurant and singing Beijing's praises. When the weather (pollution) is nice, Bejing is a great city! The next entry I'm going to write is going to be on the ubiquity of the police and "the party" here. It's really quite fascinating…unlike anything I've seen before. Xià cì jiàn! (See you next time).
The scale goes from 0-500 micrograms (of pollution) per cubic meter of air. You can check out the scale here: US Embassy Beijing AQI. It's color coded…Green and Yellow are ok. Anything above that and I feel like I need to wear a mask. Orange isn't so bad, but it's bad enough to irritate me because I have sensitive airways. We wear these souped up 3M masks here which are supposed to be good at filtering PM 2.5. I do believe they work, but you see these masks with extra filters attached to the outside. Those are the ones I want. They are supposed to even be able to block smells…which would be great because there are plenty of nasty smells to go around here.
The pollution was so bad one day (upwards around 700) that it was literally off the charts and the US Embassy had to come up with a new category which they dubbed "crazy bad". Haha. As a result, the US embassy really upset Beijing's citizens because they started demanding that the Chinese government start posting numbers as well on PM 2.5. So I thought that was pretty funny that just from their little itty bitty piece of land where the embassy lies, they upset the masses…the pen, as they say, is mightier than the sword.
Now since I've been here, we've had a few green days and a few yellow ones, but we've also had purple and brown ones a plenty. It seems like the average condition here is "Red", which is "very unhealthy". Right now it's 309 which is "Hazardous". (I downloaded an app for my phone where this little cat wears a mask at red and purple, then at brown his eyes are "x"'ed out. :)) And those green days may have been more of an anomaly than usual. Just recently there was a huge meeting of the "people's congress" in Beijing where all the big wigs were in attendance so I'm sure they shut the factories down for that.
It is estimated that 300,000 people die prematurely each year in China from air pollution. Very few Beijing locals wear masks and you can see where those figures come from, because this stuff is not to be played with. I've been hearing stories of Beijinger's hacking up and spitting everywhere all the time… and they do. But now I know why. It's cause they're trying to clear all that grime out of their throats. It's actually really sad when you think about it. But they trudge on. My feeling from Beijing people is they are down to earth, very moral and easy to relate to on a human level. I hope things improve for their sake!
We need not fear though because the government has a "war on pollution"! We're all quite familiar with policy "wars" in the US such as the "war on drugs" or the "war on poverty" and their efficacy. It doesn't take a genius to read between the lines on this one. This is one of the actual proposed solutions to the problem: send unmanned drones which spray a chemical into the atmosphere to literally freeze smog and let it fall to the ground. You can't make this stuff up.
Anyway, it's been a roller coaster here for me so far in Beijing. One hour I'm walking around in the smog and cursing Beijing and then the next, I'm chowing down on some exquisite Chinese cuisine in some fantastic restaurant and singing Beijing's praises. When the weather (pollution) is nice, Bejing is a great city! The next entry I'm going to write is going to be on the ubiquity of the police and "the party" here. It's really quite fascinating…unlike anything I've seen before. Xià cì jiàn! (See you next time).
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| The sun blotted out by pollution (300 on the scale). |
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View from the hotel. |
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| Flags on a polluted day |
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| Same flags on a clear day |
Wow Justin! Your writing is excellent. The photos are great. The one of the flags on a polluted day versus on a clear day is particularly striking. It is especially concerning because of your asthma. I am so glad that you have started to write your blog again.
ReplyDeleteHope to speak with you or Skype with you soon!
Love you and miss you,
Mom