Alright, I admit it's been about 4 months since my last posting here but I promise I will try to be more regular. So today is 01/08/08, just 8 months from the magic number which is 08/08/08 marking the opening day of the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government must be getting more than a little anxious about its promise of holding a green Olympics, which really means an Olympics with some blue sky overhead. Last year, the government set a target of 245 blue sky days for Beijing. The good news is that the last two blue sky days of the year came
none too late during the last 4 days of December, and Beijing crossed the finish line with 246 blue sky days.
The bad news is that on Thursday, December 27, Beijing had what was perhaps its worst day of the year. The Air Pollution Index on that day was between 400 and 500. That is an astonishing number. The worst I've seen it was over 200, and the picture of our complex in my last post showed a day that was close to 200. But an API of over 400 is something hard to wrap your mind around. Pictures I saw in the newspaper showed people in Tiananmen Square wandering through what looked like a heavy fog, only it was not fog but smog.
As you can see from the picture, Beijingers showed how tough they can be (though if they could see an xray of their lungs, they might not be so brave), or perhaps it's more accurate to say how used to the pollution they are, by going outside despite warnings to stay indoors that day.
Will conditions get better rather than worse as we approach the magic day? Stay tuned!
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