A New Color on the Spectrum: APEC Blue

Thank you, President Obama, for blue skies this week.

This week, President Obama and other world leaders are in town to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings and Beijing has added a new color to the color spectrum: APEC Blue.

Because of the meetings, the government has issued a long list of restrictions to reduce emissions and traffic in the hopes of keeping the skies clean and the streets empty. As a result, the boys' school and many offices are closed for the week, in effect creating an "APEC Holiday" for everyone. (The kids, presumably, are doing two days of virtual learning from home to make up for lost time.)

The government measures include a limit on traffic, with only half the number of cars driving on one day (based on the last number of your license plate), and the other half the next; a reduction in the number of spots to see a doctor, to reduce traffic but also ensure hospitals are empty and ready for possible sick dignitaries; and even a halt on the burning of incense to honor to your ancestors. (See this article for more.)

The measures are working, so the skies are "APEC Blue."

Of course, considering that smog and pollution are pretty constant around here, this pretty blue sky that's currently over the city is in fact raising some questions among residents, who are wondering why this blue sky--which apparently CAN be created--is not always here for them to enjoy.  (Read, The Sky is Really Blue But It Isn't for Us.)


 
Here is APEC Blue, yesterday at the boys' school. While Thomas played soccer...

 

...Simon totally photo-bombed my "APEC Blue" shots.

 

 
Here's the APEC Blue over the Great Wall. A friend was visiting and we went up to Huanghua Great Wall, or the Yellow Flowers segment of the Wall. On the way there, we had to pass a security checkpoint and show our IDs because the actual APEC meetings are happening in this general area.
 

 
APEC Blue & selfie
 

 
Some firewood ready for the winter. You probably wouldn't be allowed to burn it today because of all the restrictions.
 

 

A recent APEC sunrise above our house.

 

(The Halloween spider still survives in the bushes next to our house.)

 

 

Some family pictures, of Thomas and Simon enjoying the beginning of their "APEC holiday" and Thomas on Skype with a good friend in The Hague.

 

To see how the family is doing during the APEC holiday, the best way is actually to follow Thomas' super active blog, Thomas Awesome Blog, where he carefully documents his activities (as part of his homework) and even shares other goodies, such as math strategies. :-)

 

In 't Nederlands: Het is hier opeens vakantie! Een paar weken geleden hoorden we dat de school dicht moest vanwege de top van de Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation die deze week in Beijing plaatsvindt. Wereldleiders zoals President Obama zijn hier en omdat het toch echt niet de bedoeling is dat zij de stad in de vervuiling aantreffen (die wij elke dag zien) zijn er veel maatregelen genomen om de emissies te beperken en het verkeer te halveren.  Hier is een artikeltje op de NOS Website: Smogaanpak Peking: halve stad vrij. De school van Simon en Thomas is dus ook dicht en vandaag doen we aan "home learning", oftewel thuis schoolwerk maken. Op de foto's zie je iedereen genieten van de onverwachte vakantie en de "APEC blauwe" lucht die deze week boven de stad hangt.

 

Picture Perfect

A friend sent me the following article:

If it's too smoggy for your tourist photos, Hong Kong has a fake blue-sky backdrop

Tourists didn't pay good money to go to Hong Kong and have their vacation Instagrams ruined by light-impervious smog. That's why the city has set up a backdrop showing a skyline against a clear, blue, entirely fake sky. (Read the full article here.)

Here is how that works:

   
Or like this:




Living in Beijing, I think this is pretty brilliant! How many lovely photos have been perfectly ruined by that nasty old smog. So, determined to at least improve our photo archive, I went outside and took the following picture:



Doesn't that look amazing? This year, this is going to be the backdrop for all our pictures. Birthdays, Sinterklaas, Halloween -- you might get familiar with this sight.

It actually hasn't been so hard to take some good blue-sky images of Beijing the last few weeks. The winds have been blowing and the pollution index has been nicely low:



Here are some other good-weather pictures.


At the bus stop around the corner from our house. The WAB bus already pulled up to pick up Simon and Thomas.

 
Lounging in the backyard...

 
At the school, where a traditional lion dance opened up the new school year. (There are two guys sweating away inside that lion costume!)

 
After the lion dance, the kids work in teams to accomplish some wet and wild assignments. The purple building in the back is part of the WAB Elementary School where Simon and Thomas go to 2nd and 5th Grade.

 

It was mighty hot that day!

In het Nederlands: Het is de laatste weken PRACHTIG weer. Heerlijk warm, maar met een briesje en een prachtige blauwe lucht. We genieten erg, ook omdat we weten dat het dadelijk -- zo rond eind oktober -- allemaal abrupt weer afgelopen is. Het wordt dan snel koud en de lucht ook vaak vervuild vanwege alle kleine kacheltjes en later ook de centrale verwarmingen die weer aan gaan.

Blue Sky = Post All Your Pictures Online

Whenever it is a blue sky day in Beijing, all of the sudden it seems Facebook and other sites are flooded with  photos of people living here. We don't really want to show you the polluted skies - we want to show you how pretty it can be when you hike on the Great Wall in the Spring.

 

This is us (three of us) last Saturday, when we started our hike in the little village of Zhangdaokou (40° 24' 51" N, 116° 19' 39 E). Everyone has a camelback with water. :-). You can already see the Great Wall in the distance following the tops of the mountains.

 
In 10 minutes we were up on the Wall. You could go left or right... but we choose to go through the gate in the middle into the valley behind. 

 
A beautiful day.

On the other site of the valley we popped up in another little village.

 

It's a big sight to see two little blond waiguoren (foreigners) in your village. On the picture on the right, Simon walks into a very old walled village where the guards of the Great Wall used to live and sleep when not on duty.

 
Inside the walled village.

Little courtyards ("hofjes")

 
Red signs for good luck (a leftover of the Chinese New Year).

Simon finds a "fish print."

 
A great view on top of the wall that surrounds the village.

 
East meets west, old meets new.

 
From the walled village we go back into the valley and orchards to find a path to the Wall.

The landscape. You can see the Great Wall and one of the watch towers on the hill in the back.

It's Spring! Hurrah! Blue skies and pink flowers, what can be more pretty than this?

Maybe this?

We could look down at Xiangshui Lake where the Great Wall dips into a lake.

The tour guide.

 
 

 
Gege (big brother).

Anna & Wall.

 
Never a dull moment. On the way back the hike actually got pretty tricky. We followed the Wall all the way back to the begin point (close to the bridge and parking area on the right) but the Wall was crumbling down and it wasn't always very easy (or safe) to walk on top.

 
We're still on the trail though.

Oops.

Going back down through Zhangdaokou.

Back at the bridge.

Some firewood left from winter.

 
Spot the difference! (Zoek de 10 verschillen)

Well, these were all my blue sky pictures for this week! On Sunday the weather turned overcast again and since Monday a huge wind has been blowing dust in my eyes. Still, Spring is here, I saw it with my own eyes.

In het Nederlands: Afgelopen zaterdag was het supermooi weer en dan moet je er meteen op uit. We hebben heerlijk gewandeld bij een mooi stuk van de Chinese Muur vlakbij het dorpje Zhangdaokou. Tijdens de wandeling bezoeken we een oud ommuurd dorpje waar vroeger de wachters vertoefden als ze niet op de Muur aan het werk waren.