Making what seems like regular trips to Beijing these days, I still find the reports that Beijing’s air quality has maintained itself following the Olympics .. curious… and I took out my iPhone this morning while on the way to the airport to show readers just what I am talking about.
The picture is taken from the airport express train, and is of the Beijing IKEA (roughly 1km away from the tracks) and as you can see… you cannot really see it.
Sadly, Shanghai’s air over the last few days has itself been kind of soupy. No official announcement on where the “haze” is originating from, however it has the smell of burning agricultural products from the Jiangsu province.
Seeing photos like these of the ‘jing always make me hurl. I can’t believe people tolerate living in this sort of environment! Meanwhile, Americans and Europeans enjoy the fruits of Chinese surging labour, complain about the air quality in the PRC. Vicious circle…may we all live in our self-created Switzerlands!
So ironic that today’s china daily announced the blue sky target for 2009 has already been met. The air pollution was awful for much of November. Many days you could see only 200 metres.
You can check the air quality (or lack of) in Beijing here. I think the people who measure it are from the US Embassy.
http://www.twitter.com/beijingair
As you can see, the air here is “Hazardous” today.