Category: Posts

Not my kind of death wish

July 29, 2010 / / 7 Comments

Note:  Please take all of my “calculations” below with a huge grain of salt.  I’m not a statistician, a mathematician,  an air quality expert, or a public health expert (the truth comes out – I’m not much of anything).   As always, comments are welcome!

I’m back!  It’s been a hectic few months, but now I’m newly unemployed and back in the driver’s seat.  So let’s go.

As you may have heard, the air quality in Beijing is just shy of phenomenal.   In March 2009,  ECA International, a global human resources service company, ranked Beijing as the city with the second worst air pollution in the world, behind only New Delhi.

Back in 2000, I spent a summer in Beijing and almost forgot that they sky is supposed to be blue.  This summer, I’ve seen blue skies twice so far.   Despite this anecdotal evidence of improvement, the air quality here is still dismal, a fact that even the mayor of Beijing acknowledged earlier this year.  Here’s a picture I took this afternoon:

Continue reading

Treasure-making garbage can follow-up

April 15, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Thanks again to everybody who submitted comments to my previous post about the mobile bio-chemical processing machine.

I enjoyed reading your comments, and it’s nice to know that I actually have 6 loyal readers, not just 2.

Though all of your answers were worthy of a good kick in the teeth, I can only pick one lucky person whom I will treat to a delicious Peking duck dinner, complete with numerous awkward silences, inappropriate comments, and puzzling facial expressions.

And the winner is….. Continue reading

First hike of spring

March 27, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Note:  Thanks to all who participated in the bio-processor contest.  I will spend some time researching all of your leads and announce the winner within 2 weeks.

Last weekend, I went hiking for the first time in Beijing.  The trip was organized through a free on-line forum called 綠野, which literally means “Green Wild”.  Unfortunately, the hike was neither green nor wild.  The buds of spring have yet to appear in Beijing, and the mountains on which we hiked, though about 30  kilometers (18 miles) from downtown, still put us in view of Beijing’s urban sprawl.

Please note that I am definitely not ragging on Green Wild.  The hike was well-organized and I met some interesting people.  The existence of groups like Green Wild reflects a growing interest in wilderness appreciation and preservation among professional urban Chinese, and that’s a great thing.  I’m sure that I’ll post more about Green Wild activities in the future.

As you may have read in the news, last weekend welcomed the first major sandstorm of the year in Beijing.  These sandstorms are a yearly occurrence in northern China, significantly worsening over the past several decades as deforestation and poor land management resulted in rapid desertification.  China’s government started tackling this problem in earnest through reforestation and re-introduction of wild grasses and shrubbery about ten years ago, and Beijingers thought that the worst was behind them after the last two years passed with no major sandstorms.  There has been progress, but last weekend’s storm showed clearly that the war is not over.

When I woke up on Saturday, the day of the hike, the sky was yellower than my urine after a hard day of digging ditches.  I’m now kicking myself for not taking a picture.  At the time, I was more concerned that the hike would be canceled.  But the Green Wild forum did not announce a cancellation, so I set off into the maelstrom. Continue reading

Treasure chest, garbage can, or….both?

March 14, 2010 / / 14 Comments

This post is an experiment in interactive blogging.  I hope that my loyal readers (yes, all 2 of you) can help me solve a mystery.  A few weeks ago, I was visiting Shanghai when this shiny blue-and-grey beauty caught my eye:

Two words immediately popped out at me – 生化 – which mean ‘bio-chemical’, but more importantly, which are the first two words in the  Chinese title of one of the best movies ever made.  That, combined with the conspicuous lightning bolt symbol, convinced me that this inscrutable piece of equipment should not be ignored.

But I’ve since had little luck finding more information.  That’s why I’m enlisting your help.

Please post a comment with a useful lead (or the best guess you can come up with) that explains what this thing does and how it works.  The author of the most useful and/or most entertaining comment* wins a delicious Beijing roast duck meal at Da Dong.

The catch, of course, is that the winner will have to endure every painful minute of awkward conversation with me during the meal.  The other catch is that you’ll have to come to Beijing to collect your prize. I’ll be really generous and throw in a free night of lodging on my floor.

To give you a headstart and level the playing field for those of you who don’t read Chinese, here are some clues:

  • The first line of text reads “FD-RMCM”.  Sorry about the bad photography.
  • The second line reads “移动式生化处理机”, which means ‘mobile bio-chemical processing machine’
  • The first line on the bottom reads “上海复旦复达科技有限公司”, which means ‘Shanghai Fudan Fu Da Technology Company, Limited’
  • The second line on the bottom reads “上海静安区环建集团”, which means ‘Shanghai Jing An District Environmental Construction Group’
  • The text under the lightning bolt reads “请勿触碰”, which means ‘Please do not touch’
  • The mysterious cabinet was placed at ground level, abutting a multi-unit residential building

Good luck to you all.  May the best commenter win.

*The winner will be picked at my discretion. If all of the comments are worthless, then we will all be losers together.

Beijing Subway and Urban Planning

March 5, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Note:  Read more about Curitiba’s wise urban planning in Natural Capitalism by Amory Lovins, pages 288-308 (full text available on-line).  I promise this blog isn’t an advertisement for Mr. Lovins, I just really like that book.

Beijing’s subway system is, by many measures, a convenient and well-run public transport system.  At two yuan (about 30 cents) per ride, it is very affordable by Chinese standards.  Its average daily ridership is over 5 million (serving a population of 22 million), and its 100+ stops on nine lines render most places in the downtown area accessible with an additional 15 yuan ($2.00) cab ride.  In comparison, New York City’s subway system has an average daily ridership of 5.2 million (serving a population of 8.3 million), 400+ stops and 26 lines.

By the year 2015, Beijing plans to double the number of lines to 18, with a total of 400+ stations (see map above).  Daily ridership is estimated to grow to 8 million.  All of this sounds like pretty good planning, right? Continue reading