This video making the rounds on the inter-webs shows what happens when the wind shifts and starts coming in from the south and east in Beijing: https://youtu.be/csyERUfMqfE And when the wind shifts back to the north and west, it will roll on out. This is still the main thing I DON’T miss about living in Beijing. […]
Mom! I Swallowed a Brick!
Over the weekend all of northern China was once again shrouded in eye-burning, lung-suffocating, soul-crushing smog. “Air-pocolypse,” they call it. As I scrolled through my various news and social media feeds, it was pretty much the only story that people were talking about. If I hadn’t experienced such smog during my time living there (and on my visit […]
Friday Photo: Smog
Beijing has some of the most fantastic food in the world. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the air. A soul-crushing blanket of smog descended on north and northeast China last Friday (just as I landed) and has not lifted for a moment since. Even though I love being back in The Jing, my […]
Now You See It; Now You Don’t
A week and a half ago as a dress and a couple of llamas were melting the Internet in the US, Chinese netizens were gripped by an online documentary. The film, titled Under the Dome, is a hard-hitting look at the effects of pollution in China. It was posted on February 28, and within 48 hours had […]
Friday Photo: Fireworks and Pollution
Wednesday was the eve of the Chinese New Year, the night that ushers in 15 straight days of shooting off fireworks. In the run-up to the holiday this year, I spotted a poster in a Beijing neighborhood reminding people that fireworks are a source of pollution. It says (roughly) “How much healthy air is taken away […]
Two Things I Don’t Miss
Two months ago today I flew out of Beijing to begin a longish stint back in the US of A. For a variety of reasons, both personal and professional, I will be based in the US and travel often to China, instead of the other way around — as has been the case for the […]
