While Harbin continues to wheeze under a blanket of pollution, Beijing's municipal government announced measures yesterday to combat smog should when it returns to the nation's capital.
By now you surely know: Harbin in northeast China's Heilongjiang province, a city of 11 million, is blanketed in cancer-gray, toxic-smelling, blindingly thick smog. The AQI is over 500 and the PM2.5 measurement hit one thousand -- higher than it ever was during the worst of times in Beijing. Everything has closed down, from highways to airports to schools. Sinosphere and the Atlantic both have pictures and anecdotes. And AFP has this bit of funny:
This isn't too bizarre -- when else is one to get a chance to take a souvenir photo in front of a gigantic poster of the Hong Kong skyline? I mean, holy moly, everyone -- it's a gigantic photo of the Hong Kong skyline!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noted before how beautiful Beijing is when it's not, um, foggy.
Yesterday evening, before the rains came once more, we were treated to this sight:
The concept is pretty simple — set tripod in front of Tiananmen every day throughout the Two Sessions; snap picture — but Wei Yao, the photographer for Beijing Review who got the shot you see above (along with this one), explains on Reuters’s Photographers Blog that it still took a lot of work: Having the... Read more »
I daresay it might be the best thing Sina/Beijing Review/China.org has done. Go give them some love. UPDATE, 3/27, 2:15 pm: Photographer Wei Yao explains how it was done. (H/T Malcolm Moore)
While many spent yesterday morning squalling over Beijing's pollution (caused in part by this season's first sandstorm), an actual squall of sorts blew through this region, causing more damage. (Incidentally, it was this very wind that cleared out the pollution, so that in a matter of one hour, from 10 am to 11 am, the AQI dropped from 506 to 279, and by 4 pm, it was under 100, according to @BeijingAir.)
Soon to be an iPad app, surely. Via Marketplace: We wondered what other cities around the globe might look like under these pollution conditions, so we built a simple simulator to illustrate. Using side-by-side photos of Beijing to calibrate our not-so-scientific “obscurity filter,” we applied the tool to photos of some major cities around the globe. Let’s... Read more »
