Some things the CCP has sought to ban recently: The U.S. Embassy’s AQI readings Puns The term diaosi The last two are yet another example of the Xi-led CCP (the XiCP?) crackdown on the culture of today’s society. Even some of the most lovable aspects of Chinese culture are not safe from the CCP, even […]
Judging by the lengths the government is going to make Beijing a “nice” place — pretty terrible! Here are some emergency measures being taken to turn this city around for the two weeks APEC will be in town: Pollution: Government officials have promised nice air for APEC, by closing factories and kicking people out of […]
During the summer, we leave our windows open to lessen the pain of baking in a concrete oven. While our apartment becomes cooler, it also becomes dirtier, even though we have screens on our windows and live on the 11th floor. Every week, I sweep up the mess, a dirty affair that takes about an […]
Every so often, a new music video for Beijing — from Shin’s One Night in Beijing, to the 2008 Olympics anthem Beijing Welcomes You, to last year’s Beijing State of Mind — crops up to showcase the culture and various lifestyles in our fair city. This latest one, by Stephy Chung, is by far my […]
You may remember the Great Smog that kicked off 2013, an entire month of days that looked like the above picture. It was dubbed the airpocalypse after a giant cloud of smog blanketed much of northeast China and sent Beijing’s air quality index soaring to almost 800 (just a few years ago, the air monitor […]
Now that it’s a new year, we can look back on the old year! The main question is, of course, how many blue sky days did we have? According to statistics for the year released by the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, which ranks each day from 1 to 6 (highest level of pollution), 176 days […]
Or so this survey says. The Wall Street Journal reports: [China] ranked No. 1 overall among 37 countries as a destination for expats in an HSBC Holdings PLC survey released earlier this week, edging out Germany, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. Its surveys ranked China No. 2 out of 37 countries in terms of beneficial […]
After announcing last month a plan to curb air pollution by banning outdoor barbecues, which was appropriately met with much derision, Chinese officials seem to have stumbled onto something that might actually go toward fixing the air problem: Ordering companies in heavily-polluting industries to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2017. The new rules appear […]
Today I came across an alarming article on the Scientific American website about the environmental degradation of Yunnan, which I visited for a few short days in 2011. At that time, I did not know — and certainly our tour guide didn’t mention — that the province was in the middle of a serious drought, […]
Man, Beijing never comes out on top: 北京人：“我们北京人最幸福，打开窗子就有免费的烟。” 上海人：“那算什么，我们打开自来水就是排骨汤！” （在新浪微博被删除） — Kai-Fu Lee (@kaifulee) March 13, 2013 Translation: “Beijinger: ‘We Beijingers are the luckiest, we can open our windows and get free cigarettes.’ Shanghainese: “That’s nothing, we turn on our faucets and get pork chop soup!’” Previous AP story: Dead pigs found in Shanghai river […]