Ugh, Beijing

If my last two postings made you want to move to Beijing, let me be sure to tell you, or rather show you, the other side of living here. Yesterday (Sunday), Simon's soccer practice got cancelled because of the pollution. The pictures in this post were taken on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday was pretty much as bad. A heavy grey cloud of smog just enveloped the city (including our suburban area), making it undesirable, if not unhealthy, to go outside.

I didn't need any air quality meter to tell me the pollution was bad-- you could just see, smell and (I might be imagining...) taste it, but this is what the air quality index for Beijing said yesterday around the time that Simon was to play soccer:

10-10-2010; 11:00; PM2.5; 408.0; 439; Hazardous // Ozone; no data
about 24 hours ago via BeijingAir AQI Tweet (Source: http://www.twitter.com/beijingair)

Translated, this means that on Sunday morning 10 October at 11am, the concentration of fine particular matter (PM2.5, which are the tiniest particles, smaller than 2.5 micrometer across, thus smaller than a human hair and beyond what you can see with the naked eye) was 408.0 ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter air), which translated into an Air Quality Index of 439. (And for Ozone there was no data).

Well, an Air Quality Index of 439 is pretty much off the charts if you look at this EPA overview of the Index:


Source: Air Quality Index (AQI): A Guide to Air Quality and Your Health.

All Friday and throughout the weekend we were in the "Hazardous" category.

Because I am -- considering my environmental degree -- supposed to know these things and I am still having to look them up, I'll share with you some details I learned on these finer than fine specks that were hovering outside my house. (If you are not interested, just think I did this for my own enlightenment. It's amazing though how much more relevant these details are when you are actually having to breathe in this filthy air.)

In a nutshell, these extremely small particles in the air are a mixture of tiny solids and liquid droplets, all of different sizes and origin. They are (in part) created when fuel, like coal, oil, diesel, or wood, are burned, for example in a power plant or when we are driving a car. If they are not trapped in a filter at the time that they are created, the particles get up in the air, where -- if there are a lot of them and wind and rain do not move them out, they simply sit and form a dusty blanket.

Now, the Air Index above focuses on the PM2.5 particles, the particles smaller than 2.5 micrometer across. This is because the smaller the particles are, the larger their effect on your health, as it is these tiny particles that make it past your nose and throat, all the way into your lungs. (The larger particles, larger than 10 micrometer across, just irritate your nose, throat and eyes, which is annoying, but not nearly as bad as getting a lung disease.)

The particulate pollution is worst for anyone who already has some kind of lung disease, like asthma or bronchitis. Even if you are healthy though, it can in the long run affect your health. The particles also affect the development of children's lungs, which is exactly why Simon was not running outside chasing a ball yesterday morning.

(If you're fascinated by particulate matter now, you can continue reading on this U.S. EPA website. Dutchies may want to check out this page on fijnstof.)

Luckily for us, there was a heavy rain last night, so today the sky is blue (as the particles are out of the sky and now moving on to ground and surface water). The air quality index reads:

10-11-2010; 11:00; PM2.5; 5.0; 16; Good // Ozone; no data
3 minutes ago via BeijingAir AQI Tweet

In any case, if you are interested in all of China -- the good, bad, the ugly, the sunny and the "cloudy" days, you are still very welcome to stay in our house. Life continues to surprise and interest me here, even if it is not "Cuandixia" every day.

Magic school bus to Cuandixia

Excuse me if I am yawning, but last night I slept in a Chinese court yard outside Beijing. We got back home very early this morning, just in time for Paul to get a coffee, take a shower, and go to work. (Today was his first day at work after the short October break, but the boys are home from school till Monday.)

We spent our court yard night in a little town to the West of Beijing called Cuandixia. There's no way I can pronounce that name. I think I know how to say it -- Tsjoewan-die-shiaah in Dutch or Tchouwan-di-shiaah in English -- but somehow no-one ever understands me when I say it. Luckily, our driver -- again the famous Mr. Li -- knew exactly where it was, and despite some Beijing traffic we zipped up there in about two and a half hours.

Cuandixia is a nice, quaint old village built against a mountain slope. It's older than Beijing and sort of got stuck in time. I actually was joking with the boys that Mr. Li's car was like the Magic School Bus, the time-travelling bus that's featured in a popular science book series for kids. I must have been quite believable, because I ended up having to assure the boys we weren't really going to travel through time :-)

Well, Cuandixia clearly has one foot in the 21st century - our courtyard hotel had a TV, the toilet could be flushed (with a garden hose that hung off the side), and you had to buy a ticket for 30 kuai to even enter the town. But, apart from that, you really could imagine you were in old, if not ancient, China. All you can and are supposed to do in the town is just to wonder around the narrow streets, climb up and down the steps, admire tiny tucked-away temples, keep your kids from crashing down the narrow ridges, peek into court yards, and wonder what you will have for dinner because lunch was already so lovely.

(Weirdly enough, and I don't know if this is a Cuandixia thing, but we weren't able to get the regular white rice you get with any Chinese meal. The two restaurants we visited only had a purple-ish kind of rice, colored by a few beans mixed in with the rice. They also baked a lot of corn pancakes, which tasted like corn bread. An interesting combination of rice, bean and corn I thought, not something I expected in China.)

Speaking of food, be sure to check out the photo of Thomas on the right, carefully greeting our lunch. I should point out that up until now, our many Chinese lunches really have not included the spread of insects, dogs, or other non-traditional food choices that might come to mind when you think of China. But it is true that dishes here more often than in other places include a head or feet of an animal to show you the food is nice and fresh.

In the next picture, you can see a 92 year-old lady sitting on the steps in front of a door. Our driver pointed out her feet were rather small, suggesting that she would as a child have had her feet bound. If you are interested, this NPR article on footbinding gives a good overview of the history of the practice. I was actually surprised to learn that despite it being illegal since 1912, women continued to do it for a little while longer because of the special status -- a way up the social ladder -- small feet could bring.

In searching for more information about Cuandixia, I also came across this interesting 1996 article in the New York Times, a lovely bit of old China, languishing in the new. Today, fourteen years after this article was published, it looks like the article's predictions have come through. More people have moved away from Cuandixia, but at the same time tourism seems to be saving the village (or at least the buildings in the village, not necessarily the old way of life).

A final interesting tidbit about the town is that all the people in it are descendants of the same Han family who founded the village. I took home the business card of one of the Han's, so one day we can go back and hike a bit more in the mountains around the town. For now, this was our court yard visit. The boys did seem to enjoy their trip through time and the cozy night in our one-bedroom house.

Here are some more pictures of our adventure:

The narrow streets of Cuandixia.

Entrance to a court yard. All the home owners in the village participate in the tourist activities and have a sign to show they are a restaurant or hotel.

Lunch with driver Li.

Corn growing above the street.

The Chinese character for "Cuan" which according to Internet lore means "stove." The entire name Cuandixia refers to it being some sort of "shelter" to protect from cold and war.

Drawing at the entrance of our court yard hotel.

Part of a temple on the hill above town.

Outlook over the village. Ignore the sun and try to see the cluster of homes among the trees.

Field with corn.

Statue in a temple.

Beautiful view and some unsightly garbage. There was actually little littering in Cuandixia - the town is kept nice and clean.

Our court yard hotel. We slept in the house (a one-room house) on one side of the court yard, with friends, our driver, and some strangers in the other homes.

Just like in ancient China: Two guys sitting outside and having a drink.

For the villagers, our blond kids were the tourist attraction. The boys are posing for a picture.

At the edge of the village.

Convenient storage spot.

Hello, want banana? (Visit to the Great Wall)

This week is flying by. As I mentioned in my last post, this week is a vacation week because of the October 1 Holiday that honors the foundation of the People's Republic of China. Schools and many work places are closed and people seem to be travelling to visit their families or simply see a bit more of the world.

Today we went to see the Great Wall (in Dutch: Chinese Muur). It's funny, but when you travel to China, one of the first things you'll probably want to do when you get off the plane is to visit the Wall. But when you are moving here, you first spend your days trying to figure out how to pay a phone bill (missed the deadline), hang pictures on the wall (two gongren came to do it for me), or get your nails done (well, it is part of my cultural experience here!). We didn't really have time (or a car) to go before, and twice when we had time and car, it was raining!

Not today though. Today all the stars aligned and at 8:50ish Driver Li - who we know from the time that we were still looking for a house -- showed up with his car and we headed out towards Mutianyu. The thing about the Great Wall is of course that it is really long and there are many places around Beijing where you can go see it. Some places are more touristy than others, and at some places the wall is in better shape than others. Mutianyu, where we went today, is a beautiful site, but it is rather touristy. You sort of have to make your way past many T-shirt ("T-shirt, one dollar!") and fruit (hello, want a banana?) stands. I honestly cannot tell you how many bananas I have been offered today, but it is more than I can eat in a year. (Interestingly enough, I did not see anyone actually buy a banana, but I might have been too busy eyeing the one-dollar T-shirts).

If this description isn't already touristy enough for you, please also note that to get on top of the Wall at this location, you actually can board a cable car. And after your leisure stroll across the wall, you can either again take a cable car, or -- like the adventurous Dutch -- a toboggan slide down. (A toboggan is a sort of sled, and you slide down like you do with bobsledding, except with about 1/1000 the speed.)

Here are some pictures:

Cable car ride up.

Walking on top of the Wall.

Mo-o-om, I am here!

The big red himself.

Thanks for traveling to the Wall along with me. Now go grab that banana!

Off the reservation

As I was biking home from Thomas' school last Wednesday -- well, it is Simon's school too, but he was sick at home with a sniffle and a cough -- it occurred to me that you, dearest reader, have not seen much of the world around me at all.

I won't be able to show you everything all at once, but at least I can show you a couple shots I took after I visited Thomas and biked home. I used a bit of a detour to get home, but it does pretty much show you what I see here outside our "villa compound" (a new friend calls it "the reservation") every day. So we'll start with Thomas' school building and -- SPOILER ALERT -- end with me picking him up at the bus stop at Beijing Riviera again in the afternoon.

[And...you may ask, why was I at the school but Thomas did not come with me? Well, on Wednesdays he would only have a half-day of school if it wasn't for his parents who signed the poor boy up for an afternoon of Dutch language games and fun. Thomas thinks these days are a bit long though and wants to go home with his class mates at noon. So I went over to the school to cheer him up by having lunch with him. Simon happened to be sick(ish) at home that day, but he was in our ayi's more-than-capable hands, which left me some time to snap some pictures for you!)

Hold on tight... here comes:

On the top right: My favorite statue. This boy is standing in a lovely garden in between the Elementary School where Simon goes and the Early Childhood Center (ECC) building where Thomas spends his school hours. Both buildings are on the campus of the Western Academy of Beijing.

Below: The ECC building. Thomas' classroom is inside. He comes out this door to walk to the main Elementary School building to go to the library, swimming, or other activities, or go towards the busses to go home.

A big street. What else to say? Boring you say? Well, it's just a very typical view, so that's why I included it.

Another typical view. There are these walls everywhere -- sometimes pretty, sometimes run down or just plain ugly. But the funny thing is that those walls tell you little about what might be behind them. I've been to places where you wondered why you would even step through the door, only to end up in a big and beautifully-decorated store or restaurant.

Traffic sign - pretty self-explanatory. :-)

Another big crossing. Just cross with the right attitude and cars will stop.

Bike path. This car swirls around me and goes back onto the "bike lane" after he passes me. Cars use the emergency and bike lanes all the time - actually, they pretty much use any open part of the road, no matter what the official lanes might be. On the upside though: I do find because of this mad-driving, everyone really pays attention. In the U.S. I felt people were driving asleep - never checking their mirrors, just cruising along in the same old left lane. But here, cars zig zag all the time, bikes are everywhere, and cars can turn right from the second (!) lane over. So you simply have to pay attention and it looks like people do.

"Homeware Lifestyle Village". This is really close to my house and I've come here twice for coffee now. Homewares are yet to be seen.

Simon said: "This lion is sad". Well, if you are at the "Home Lifestyle Village" and your cousins are at the Emperor's Palace, would you not be sad?

Ten meters after the sad lion you can buy kites.

Forty meters after the kites you can buy a Volkswagen.

All this fun stuff (kites, Volkswagen, sad lion) is happening along Jingmi Lu (lu means "road"). Jingmi Lu is a big and busy street that goes farther out into the suburbs and also runs all the way to the center of Beijing. I've sometimes taken it the whole way, but it is such an ongoing traffic jam in the mornings that it's much easier to pay the 8 RMB toll and take the airport express highway to the city center. We're currently outside the city's metro system -- but not for long! See the note below.

From Jingmi Lu, I turn left onto Xiang Jiang Bei lu. That's where I put on my sunglasses (if not already wearing them) against the dust...

...because Xiang Jiang Bei lu is just an open construction zone. They are always working on the road and also building a brand new metro line. One station is going to be right here, super close to my house -- I am so excited! For the Washingtonians: Remember the purple line? Apparently here, nobody even knew the metro line was coming. One day a year ago, construction simply began and now they are talking about opening it in a few months.

More metro line construction on Xiang Jiang Bei lu. And behind where I am standing is a gas station with a lady who was selling flowers and plants. I stopped to look and ended up buying four plants for the house.

The plant lady put all the plants (some much bigger than the one shown in the picture) on her motorized bike and we biked the last bit together to my house.

At home I find a (not-so-sick-anymore) pirate. Arrrr!

Simon snaps a picture of his mom counting till two.

Then, at 15:30 (3:30pm), it's time to make the 40-second walk to the bus stop, to pick up Thomas.

Bus is coming!

-- THE END --