Emergency Green Plan

The pollution is Beijing has been bad ever since the new restrictions were put in place. The government is blaming it on the weather which has been especially hot and humid. Hopefully some rain or wind will blow this out of here before the Olympics. But just in case it does not get better, Beijing is contemplating an emergency plan for if pollution continues.

The emergency plan will be put in place within 48 hours of the Olympics start on Aug. 8th. The plan would take 90% of the private vehicles off the roads, all construction sites and more factories in neighboring areas would be closed.

New Olympic Restrictions

It has been unclear since we have been here what activities would be restricted by the government leading up to the Olympics. There has been a lot of rumors over the months. Here is what we now understand:

• Visa restrictions were imposed a couple of months ago which has made it difficult to enter China. The government says they have only imposed the rules that were already in place.
• The police are stopping foreigners and checking for passports and visas. We have not experienced this but know co-workers and friends who have.
• The police started checking residency permits by going door-to-door to expat communities over a month ago.
• On July 1, half of the government cars were pulled off the road. We were impacted by that at work.
• Also on July 1, trucks with yellow tags (don't pass emission standards) are no longer allowed in the city of Beijing (that impacted our packing and moving schedule).
• Tomorrow the new travel ban takes place for private vehicles. Cars can only travel on odd-even days based on license plate number until Sep 20. As a result I will be riding my bike to work for the next two weeks.
• Heavy industry will shut down factories from July 20 to Sept 20.
• Government office hours have been reduced to 9 to 5 instead of 8:30 to 5:30 until Sep 20.

I sure hope this all works to reduce the pollution for the Olympics. Here are some pictures from Saturday at Jingshan Park, Coal Hill, Gaobeidian:

30 Days to the Olympics

I cannot believe there are only 30 more days to the Olympics. The air quality better improve drastically and quickly.

Sandstorm Arrives in Beijing

We experienced our first sandstorm in Beijing this morning after getting in to work. The sky looked ominous and was a strange color. Then I could smell dirt in the air in the office. A couple of windows blew open to let even more dirt into the indoor air. My nose and throat have been burning ever since. The storm lasted for about 4 hours. The air has improved but is still quite polluted of full of dirt. Here are before and after pictures.

Check out the weather channel report for Beijing (blowing sand and 50 degrees)

Pollution

I was beginning to actually think air quality was getting better about a week or two ago. We saw quite a few "blue sky" days. Then over the last few days it has been quite "yuckky". A colleague at work took a picture outside our office just to show the contrast that one day can make. Keep in mind the smoggy day picture is actually a color photo.

Censorship

Picture of Tibet Separatist

Censorship is an interesting topic in China. There has been speculation in the media that China will selectively loosen censorship on the Internet for hotels, convention centers, and Internet cafes that westerners will frequent during the Olympics. This obviously is intended to give the perception that China is open.

I can tell you that censorship still exists in Beijing in spades. Recently, BBC television had several program segments which dealt with the air quality and China separatist activities (Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions). The TV was completely blank as these segments came on air.

As for the Internet there are many sites that we cannot get access to like Wikipedia. This blog is even censored for viewing, thankfully editing is not blocked.

You know it is a bad day when - -

You know it is going to be a bad pollution day when you wake up, walk out of the bedroom head towards the living room and you smell coal in the air. It looks like it was a busy night for all the those coal burning factories and houses.

I think I have mentioned in prior entries, so bear with me, the weather channels will report the conditions as fog or smoke So this morning current conditions in Beijing as reported by various sources are:

• Google weather is 21 degrees and Fog
• Weather Underground reports 21 degrees and Smoke
• BBC is really off the mark with 21 degrees and visibility listed as good
• Weather.com is 21 degrees and Smoke

Pollution doesn't seem as bad this Fall and early Winter as last year, unless I am just getting used to it and don't seem to notice.

17th Party Congress

This is a very big week in China and especially Beijing. Today begins the 17th Party Congress Meeting at the Great Hall of the People which was built in 1959. The meeting lasts until Sunday.

The Communist Party of China meets every 5 years to establish the direction of the country and to select its leaders.

The interesting thing is that all the policies and decisions have already been made in previous weeks leading up to this meeting. This will be an opportunity for the 2,217 delegates to hear and discuss the new policies. There are over 73MM out of the 1.3B people who belong to the communist party in China. Hu Jintao, the general Secretary of CPC Central Committee and the President will deliver his political report.On the way into work today (I do not go directly in front of Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall) there were a great number of police and local citizens with red arm bands lining the 2nd Ring Road to keep order (traffic and people).

Oh and magically the last two days have had beautiful sunny weather and good visibility and what appears to be low pollution. It never seems to amaze me anymore when important events are scheduled in Beijing.

Another Olympic Test

We have been hearing over the last month or so rumors that government officials were going to pull cars off the roads in Beijing during August to see the effects on pollution. There were lots of variations on how this was going to be done. The decision has been made and implemented. I am glad I am not in Beijing right now.

Olympics: Beijing bans over a million cars to cut pollution
by Charles Whelan Fri Aug 17, 2:17 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing banned more than one million cars from its roads on Friday in a test run to improve air quality for the Olympics, easing notorious gridlock although a thick smog still hung over the city.

More than 6,500 traffic police were on duty across the city to ensure car owners observed the ban, while an extra two million more trips were expected to be taken on subways and buses during the day, officials said.

The four-day test is expected to be a prelude for a similar ban to be put in place for the duration of the August 2008 Olympics, as part of a range of measures to temporarily improve air quality for athletes and visitors.

Beijing is one of the world's most polluted cities, and poor air quality, blamed partly on the city's three million cars -- a number growing by 1,200 a day -- has long been a top concern for athletes and officials.

Those worries were exacerbated as a weeks-long smoggy haze that reduced visibility to just a few hundred metres (yards) on occasions marred the build-up to last week's August 8 one-year countdown to the Games.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, in Beijing for the countdown, said then some events could be postponed if pollution was extremely bad, in what would be an unprecedented move to protect athletes' health.

The ban received a mixed reaction from commuters in Beijing on Friday morning, with many being forced to jam into crowded subway lines. Others did not believe it would have much of an impact on air quality.

"I cannot believe it is so crowded, two trains have just passed and I just could not squeeze myself on," said businessman Wang Xindong, who normally drives to work but found himself stuck at an inner-city subway station.

"As for the pollution emissions, I don't think taking cars off the road for just four days will have an immediate effect."

With taxis exempt from the ban, cab driver Jia Jinrong was up early on Friday and expecting a good day of business. However he was surprised that the traffic had eased only marginally.

"The traffic is okay, but not as good as I expected," he said. "We all know this car ban is just a show for the Olympics, a superficial phenomenon."

Of the city's 2.4 million private cars, those with licence plates ending in an even number are banned on Friday and Sunday, while those with an odd number must remain off the roads on Saturday and Monday.

Commuters who drive on the wrong day face fines of 100 yuan (13 dollars), according to the state-run press.

A fleet of government-owned vehicles were also taken off the roads, with the total number of cars remaining at home each day expected to be around 1.3 million, according to city officials.

During the test, scientists will monitor pollution levels at 27 stations throughout the city to gauge how effective the scheme will be for the Games.

Beijing city transport commission deputy head Liu Xiaoming said last week the ban was expected cut vehicle emissions by 40 percent.

He said vehicle emissions were responsible for a quarter of particulate matter and more than 50 percent of three other major pollutants -- sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Barcelona in Beijing

A group of us went to a friendly soccer match between FC Barcelona and Beijing Guo’an. There were about 30,000+ people at the smallish Fengtai Stadium. It took some time to get there as there are no good roads that connect the ring roads. So unfortunately we did not have as much time to tail gate with buckets of KFC chicken and Heineken as we would have liked.
Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o started for Barcelona and then Ronaldinho replaced Henry in the second half. Lionel Messi did not play as he was still recovering from the Boca Cup. FC won 3-0.






The crowd was very energetic. It was amazing how many Barca supporters there were from Beijing. Some of the local fans were not happy and occasionally booed.


The air was very thick with pollution, not sure what the Barcelona players thought of that. The game was somewhat of a dry run for next year's Beijing Olympics, with the countdown at one year on Wednesday. The security was in high force.
Beijing Olympics officials are very concerned about the image the city projects next year and have been campaigning to get people to curtail bad habits like spitting, jumping ahead in line and reckless driving. The only reckless thing I saw was the launching of plastic square shaped fans that made great Frisbees after each goal scored by Barcelona.

Funny article from China Daily:

Beijing police out in force to limit Barcelona abuse(Xinhua)Updated: 2007-08-04 11:35
In their latest effort to tackle crude behavior ahead of the Olympics, Beijing police say they will punish or even detain football fans who yell out the "F-Word" (the Chinese equivalent) at Sunday's friendly between Beijing Guo'an FC and Barcelona.
"Those who initiate swearing or goad the crowd into mass cursing at the game will be ejected from the stadium or even face detention and a 12-month ban from attending football matches," Liu Chunjiang, a spokesman with Beijing police's Fengtai District Branch told Xinhua on Friday.
Fengtai police, responsible for security at Sunday's game between Beijing Guo'an FC and Barcelona, will treat the international friendly expected to attract more than 30,000 fans as a "drill for next year's Olympics", Liu said.
"It is just way out of line to have 30,000 people shouting and swearing en masse," Liu said.
"There will be a police officer in each stand videoing the crowd during the match in order to collect evidence of fans' bad behavior, from cursing and fighting to throwing litter or running onto the field. We will keep records of all violations," he said.
"What we are trying to do is to give the right guidance in how to view a football match, not to impose anything on the spectator, " Liu said.
Beijing Fengtai Stadium, where the game will be held, is the home stadium of Guo'an FC and a notorious cussing venue for Beijingers who enjoy letting fly with tirades of abuse.
A seasoned curser surnamed Hao was detained for seven days in July for "violating the order of a public event". The man set up a website in March called "Beijing Curse Union", aimed at promoting a "curse culture" and goading Beijing football fans before each match to swear at the visiting team. He was banned from the stadium for 12 months.
Another five members of the "Union" were fined or given warnings. Sunday's game will be the first match after the banning of the "Union", said Liu, who refused to say how many police officers will be present.

Food Quality in China is Tops

I understand that there is a lot of media attention in the US on the quality of products from China, particularly food. Just so you know, in Beijing they believe that all the media is hype and sensationalism. One example is the recent news on the steamed buns (baozi) that were filled with cardboard. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/13/content_5434250.htm

Six days later an article explains that the whole thing was a fabricated story. Who do you believe in the China press? http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/19/content_5438963.htm

China Daily also published this article today WHO: Food safety 'big problem' for all http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/19/content_5438993.htm

Just to prove the point, China and the US will have bilateral meetings to discuss the food quality issue. China has published statistics to prove that the food exports from China to the US actually have a higher approval rate than the exports from the US to China. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2007-07/19/content_5439012.htm

Another Olympic Test

We actually heard some rumblings about this early last week but now it seems to have been picked up by western news services as well. Beijing used traffic control methods earlier this year for the African Conference but it was not to this scale and this long. I ened up taking the subway to work as a result. I am going to be glad to be back in the US while much of this is going on. Until we hear more about the plans I am not sure how this will impact us getting around the city.

Beijing to ban a million cars in clean air test

Thu, 05 Jul 2007, 11:52AM
BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing is planning to ban a million cars from the city's streets for two weeks next month as a test-run to ensure clean air at next year's Olympics, officials said here Wednesday.

"The plan has been drawn up and is ready to go," said Fan Yinlong, a city government spokesman, referring to a range of measures that will include the ban on one million cars in notoriously polluted Beijing from August 7-20.

That two-week period is crucial to Olympic planners, as it roughly coincides with the time that the Games will be held next year, from August 8-24.

Beijing will also host 11 Olympic test events during the fortnight, including cycling road races, wrestling, hockey and beach volleyball.

Beijing has spent around 15 billion dollars on a massive pollution clean-up in the run-up to the Olympics, according to city officials, but air quality remains a key concern.

Despite assurances from the Chinese government, International Olympic Committee leaders have expressed deep concern about the problem and demanded "contingency measures" to contain the pollution threat.

Beijing Olympic organising committee spokeswoman Zhu Jing also confirmed that the traffic ban was being prepared as part of the one-year countdown test program.
Zhu said the plan to remove one million of Beijing's three million cars was inspired by a similar campaign that proved effective during a China-Africa summit hosted by Beijing last year.

"Air quality was better, and traffic congestion improved," she said.

Zhu said the measures would be officially announced once they are approved by the city's rubber-stamp People's Congress on July 24.

Masters of Mother Earth

It is amazing how often we run into a belief in fate or luck in Chinese culture. Things like lucky numbers, lucky colors, the naming of your children, horoscopes, etc. So how do you explain the Chinese beliefs in being able to control mother earth, especially rain (maybe the Chinese are Masters?!?). Here is an article published by the AP:

China to Force Rain Ahead of Olympics
Chance of showers during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: 50 percent. But Chinese meteorologists have a plan to bring sunshine. The meteorologists say they can force rain in the days before the Olympics, through a process known as cloud-seeding, to clean the air and ensure clear skies. China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, but whether it works is a matter of debate among scientists. Weather patterns for the past 30 years indicate there is a 50 percent chance of rain for both the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, 2008 and the closing ceremony two weeks later, said Wang Yubin, an engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.

The forced rain could also help clean Beijing's polluted air, said Wang Jianjie, another meteorologist with the bureau. "When conditions permit, we will artificially increase rainfall," she said. "Rainfall is a way to naturally clean the air." In 2003, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences questioned the science behind cloud-seeding as "too weak." But China frequently uses artificial rainmaking in the drought-plagued north. Last May, Beijing boasted having generated rainfall to clear the air and streets following the worst dust storm in a decade.
Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office said they fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city's skies. They claimed it provoked a chemical reaction in clouds that forced four-tenths of an inch of rain.

Beijing's air pollution is among Asia's worst. Officials have shuttered several chemical and steel plants on the city's edge, and many polluters will shut down ,or cut back, during the Olympics. But the city also has 2.9 million registered vehicles, and the number is expected to reach 3.3 million by the Olympics, a 13 percent increase.

The Talk of Weather

Often we talk about the weather and air quality in Beijing. The other day I was saying to someone that I never think about what to wear outside, it never rains or snows. According to article below, not only has it been drier than normal but also warmer. If this is warmer I cannot wait to see a cold winter. It sure seems like it has not been over 35 the whole winter. Turns out I am using the wrong measure and should be measuring the the sanjui days (coldest days). All of this means a potentially good sandstorm year for the spring months.

Beijing Environment Watchdog Warns of Sandstorms

Beijingers can prepare handkerchiefs and face masks for dusty weather this spring because little snow has so far fallen in the dry, grey Chinese capital, a city environmental official said on Monday.

"Beijing is experiencing a warm, dry winter so sands can easily be stirred up. If the present weather continues, then severe sandstorms are likely in the spring," said Shi Hanmin, head of the municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
Beijing has experienced two snowfalls this winter and the temperature on sanjiu days, a traditional term for the coldest days of the year, stood at minus 1.3 degrees Celsius, the warmest for 13 years.

Last year, the city reported 241 so-called "blue sky days", or days with fairly good air quality, when particulate matter in the air is less than 100 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the environmental bureau.

"It is hard for us to improve on 60 percent of blue sky days per year. We don't have many new solutions to combat dusty weather," Shi said.

But he said Beijing will renovate more than 1,100 coal-fuelled boilers and replace 2,580 old buses by the end of the year in further anti-pollution efforts.

"Also, next year, the city will apply Euro IV emission standards to new vehicles to cut automobile pollutants," Shi said. In the event of sandstorms, city authorities will ask roadside stores, companies and other institutions to sweep the dust from streets and roofs so as to prevent further air pollution, he said.

Beijing experienced 17 sandstorms last spring, and the most serious one in April saw some 300,000 tons of sand and dust dumped on the city.
(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2007)

The picture above is from a sandstorm April 2006 which hit Beijing. Here is more information on that storm:
http://earth.esa.int/ew/special_events/china_sandstorm-apr06/

Pollution

I know I just talked about the pollution problem in Beijing but I just came across this graph. The reason why I entered a piece on smog was it just seemed so bad that day and had to write about it. Here is the proof of just how bad it was.

China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has a pollution rating scale that measures up to 500. A 25 rating is considered safe. A 200 is a bad day for Beijing.

Smog or Freezing Fog

The last couple have days have been a little rough on visibility and breathing. The smog or smoke as it is sometimes called is bad. Here is a picture from the apartment. You will recall another photo that I showed earlier on a clear day. What a difference.

What I like is the weather terminology that is used to describe the air pollution. Sometimes it is called fog, haze, or smoke. This is the first time I have seen it called Freezing Fog.

Window Washing

Beijing is a very dirty, dusty, and polluted city. So to keep up with it there is a large work force cleaning streets, planting trees and plants and most important of all are the window washers. It seems like the windows are being washed on our apartment complex at least once a month. It is an amzing sight to see when the washers decend down the side of the 32 story building. I never seem to have my camera ready for this. Yesterday while we were out shopping I did catch this sight:

China clearly does not have th OSHA regulations like the US. Each of these washers is on a simple single rope and they decend while washing the windows like spiders.

Ramblings

RW and I have been picked up by driver Shen to work each day. It is a 20-30 minute ride, not too bad. The office is quiet. The intranet speed his horrific. I have trouble getting an external internet site at all. We will have to see if there is anything we can do to fix that. We have settled in on the 15 RMB lunch buffet. Lots of good warm dishes, drinks, fruit. The room needs a lot of work. It is a temporary cafeteria on the 3rd floor. There are nice bright yellow plastic seats for tables of 4 and a cement floor.

We take the taxi back home. Thank goodness the Intercontinental Hotel is next door, otherwise it might be difficult to hail a taxi as the office buildings are set off the busy west 2nd Ring Rd. (think a very slow congested beltway).

Speaking of Intercontinental, RW and I went to lunch at the hotel to see what they had to offer. There were a few options on the 5th floor. We went to a nice Cantonese restaurant called Si Chou Lu. The food was good and had English and Chinese so I knew what I was getting. The service was top rate, but I'm starting to get used to the $1.85 meal. I had to laugh that RW my good Chinese colleague wanted a fork because the nice chopsticks were to slippery.

RW's house shipment is coming today. My immigration papers are being completed today so my shipment can be sent and maybe we will get it sometime next week. AF and I cannot wait for our stuff to come. We are sleeping on the most uncomfortable rock hard beds. BF bought us some featherbedding that I hope will help. These beds are so bad they feel like you are sleeping on the floor. AF says she is getting bruises on her hips and knees.

The last few days have been in the high 80's lots of humidity and of course smog. This is a view from our apartment today looking north (bei).






I think I am up to maybe 5 mandarin words:
ni hao - hello
zaijian - good bye
xie xie - thank you
lu- street
bei - north
non- south

AF has volleyball tryouts tonight. She leaves at 7am and comes back tonight at 7pm, yuck! Seems like all the kids live out by the school in Shunyi. So tryouts dont start until 4:30 so kids have time to go home and then return for practice. PRactice is over before 6pm and AF catches thebus right at 6. It takes an hour to get back to the city because they drop a teacher off in a very conjested area.

CB landed in Beijing today. Will try to see him this weekend to welcome him to the China. He is by himself until SL lands on the 25th and will reside in same building. WL, QL, WW all arrive tomorrow.

Shopping, Thai Dinner, and Sanlitun Bar Scene

Today AF and I worked out in the gym now that I have running sneakers I purchased from Ya Show Market yesterday for 150 RMB. I am sure I got ripped off but she started out at 650 RMB. She acted so insulted when I offered 100 RMB. She did not like me hitting the first digit on the calculator with a 1. I kept trying to walk away but she kept at it and we finally settled on 150 ($18.75). She acted like I really hurt her, huh.

AF and I went shopping for some clothes for her. We first went to a department store that she remembered the last time being here. The only problem is that she could not remember the name of the store. I contacted QL via Blackberry to get the name. It turns out this is the same place that BF received some hairstyling from a Korean stylist, based on recommendation from WW. We asked the concierge to write the Chinese name of the store (Pacific Dept Store) on an Embassy House business card so the taxi driver knew where we wanted to go.

We were not successful looking for clothes for AF at Pacific. We then walked to Ya Show markets, similar to Silk Street Market where you need to bargain and get harassed by the shop keepers. Nothing really suited her there either. Unfortunately, batteries ran out on the camera so no pictures with the adventure.

It is another one of those hazy Beijing days with limited visibility. It is extremely humid outside. We decided to go back to the apartment for rest and lunch.

It is now 13:30 and AF wants to stay home. I still feel like getting out and discovering places. I decided to get in a taxi headed for Wanfujing which is a big shopping area near Oriental Plaza and T'iananmen Square. There are a number of shopping malls there (Sun Dong An Plaza, Wanfujing Dept Store, and Oriental Plaza Shopping Mall).

AF and I planned to go to the Canadian Embassy for mass at 5:30. The embassy is only 10 minute walk from the apartment. When we got there, we talked to the Chinese guard in front of the embassy and he said there has not been mass there in 2-3 years. Shucks.... would have been nice to walk to church each week. AF and I walked back. She wanted to stay in for dinner.

I called RW a co-worker who just got into town yesterday to see if he wanted to go out to dinner. We arranged to meet out on the street since his apartment is just a block west of Embassy House. We walked to a restaurant that I had scouted in Sanlitun area and was quoted as best Thai restaurant in Beijing in "That's Beijing Magazine," an English monthly magazine. The restaurant is called "Serve the People". RW said this was the name of an old Mao doctrine. The bottom of the menu was even signed in his hand-writing/calligraphy which is supposedly very good as he studied it for some time.

It was too humid to eat outside on the street, so we went in. Food was very good and a little spicy. We had Pad Thai noodles, Pork Satay, a spicy cooked seafood dish in coconut curry, oxtail, a prawn seafood salad and of course some Tsing Tao beer.

We then walked down to the Sanlitun Bar street. This is a very interesting bas scene street. The street is comprised of one bar next to another the whole length of the street. So the routine begins with a street hawker trying to get you to go into their bar because they have the BEST happy hour. Seems like happy hour is always advertised no matter what time of the day!!! In the bar, there is always a guy playing a keyboard and two ladies singing Karoake type songs. You always see groups of people with a whole bottle of some strong liquor like vodka or whiskey and playing dice drinking games. We left before the next routine which is a belly dancer. This routine is repeated again and is the same at all the bars.

Time for bed.