Beijing city pollution, is it really as bad as everyone says?
Well, for the first week that I was here I was wandering around looking up at the clear blue sky thinking perhaps not. We had several days where the weather was just fine, better even than some of Sydney's bad traffic spots.
However, it wasn't too long before the good spell of weather ended and then I realised the pollution is a lot worse than I've experienced before. I noticed it especially when I returned from my day trip hiking to the mountains north east of Beijing. On that trip I met a couple of people who both said that you know when the Chinese Communist Party is having a gathering in Beijing - the air gets cleaner. I guess the CCP members must have all gone home now because the pollution is starting to annoy me a bit. Most of this week (except Thursday when the air was clear and the sky blue) the air has been dry and dusty or smelling of fumes. Last week I started to see more people wearing face masks, I might have to start doing the same. Apparently the pollution in winter and summer is worse than spring and autumn, the first day of winter passed this week, nice.
A couple of weeks ago I started to take some photos of the same scenery out of a window at my language school. I tried to take the photos at the same time of day but sometimes I forgot. In all there are some examples of clear skies, fog and smog filling the view. See if you can spot the vanishing buildings.
Click here to see the pictures.
