So smoggy (Marcus)

Well as Courtney posted Friday turned into a really busy, really good day. From the wandering around the city, to a bit of shopping, to dinner to bar hopping and finally operation kitty rescue(and seriously, you have no idea how close we came to bringing those kitteh's home with us...if we weren't going away for a few weeks...there'd be the pitter patter of little feet right now..).

As we walked down to the temple market, had to grab a shot of these girls with their lovely chinglish t-shirts. "Let's platy bear thar!"

So today we had mostly a quiet one. We went to Metro to buy a few odds and ends but it's quite disgustingly humid outside. Worse though, it's also become extremely smoggy. It just sort of rolls in like fog. It wasn't this bad when we left, I don't think anyway. The photographs don't really do it justice, but it really is terrible.




As mentioned before, it's like someone is perpetually burning off next door - though there's no fires to be seen. With air quality this bad, I seriously do not know how they can seemingly ignore it. Someone somewhere must be trying to do something about it, but who can really say. Initially I felt awkward talking about how bad the air quality could get. I remember driving down to Tai Hu with Mr Pan and he said that that particular day was a good day. That day in reality was really smoggy - not as bad as it can get, but smoggy nonetheless. I guess that day destroyed my illusions that the smog really wouldn't be TOO bad.

I remember watching on the news, months before deciding where we were going, places on China that were perpetually under smog 24/7. Where it was even worse than the photos above(and again, the photos don't really pick it up as it looks in real life). I remember saying to Courtney, when we were at our most indecisive as to which city to live in and getting a little exasperated by the choice - "You know, I really don't care where we go, as long as it's not one of those smog towns(that we saw on the TV)." Well some days it looks almost as bad as those. When you look down any given street, you see silhouettes of things against the smog, rather than clear avenues.

The Chinese devote considerable manpower to beautifying their country. You see migrant worker cleaners everywhere. People trimming hedge gardens to perfection, and rows of thoughtfully planted flower and shrub gardens. They do like to make where they live look nice - it's evident everywhere. It's just a shame when you have such heavy smog - you cant remotely appreciate any other form of beauty here. It just makes everything look filthy and dreary. Thankfully it's not like this every day. We posted some photos recently where the sky was actually blue - take a look at the photo of the day we have up currently. When the air is clearer - usually due to light to moderate wind, the place is infinitely nicer. In fact some afternoons as I wander back from class, I feel downright happy and content. The lake looks nice on a clear day, the air is nice and warm in the late afternoon - it CAN be a really really nice place.

I just hope they really are making efforts somewhere to stop the pollution. I know England went through a period like this back during the industrial revolution - where London was famous for it's extreme coal pollution. Well China is cramming like 30 years of progress into 10, and I am sure it will improve eventually. I will be really keen to come back and visit when it's come that full circle, as it is such an interesting culture, with such a huge history behind it - i would hate to see it only remembered for it's ability to destroy itself through industry.

The above photo is again at the canal that runs beside the school. I have spoken numerous times about just how poor the water is, and how bad it smells - the water is often black. The other day we were going for a walk around the school - as we generally do after dinner, and man there was this black liquid just pumping into the water. You can see the difference in colour where the black meets the dark green - and god did it STINK!! Jiangsu province is absolutely covered in water - there are canals and lakes and rivers everywhere(hence the mosquitoes!) - it is just such a shame to see so much of it being filled with bad stuff like above. There's areas around here where you can see the factories beside filthy filthy bodies of water. I know they have been making efforts to clean it up - but like the air quality, i just hope they really focus on it. I am positive the new generation of Chinese who are going through the schools currently will be a lot more focused on this - they seem infinitely more aware of the implications than the ones before them.

And now for something completely different...

This mother was letting her baby sip her beer inside the German beer garden we went to. I would like to say 'Only in China' but I've seen this in Australia too. It's amusing nonetheless!

The 'German beer garden' looked anything BUT a German beer garden. It was in this lovely authentic little chinese building.

It was this kind of environment I thought we'd be in all the time - discovering little chinese style places to just chill out and have a few drinks. While they're not as common as i would have thought, they are still to be found. We really like places like this. Was a shame the mozzies were out in force though.

Cheers! Since coming to China we have discovered that Beer is the absolute perfect accompaniment to every Chinese meal. It's also damned fine on hot evenings like last night.