existential struggles in greater China and southeast Asia
As clean as Singapore is, I don’t get the feeling that its government and citizens are enthusiastic about environmental issues. Bike lanes are almost non-existent, conspicuous consumption is encouraged, and check out these inscrutable recycling bins I found next to the Lavender MRT station:
Uf, I know, it has been way too long since I last posted. I am back in the old home town now. Some changes to come… Look forward to one last installment from the Southwestern Adventure. For now, I am headed into the desert and canyonlands for a week. I promise to share with you any inspiration that I meet. Above is a picture of sakura in Taroko Gorge, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
I’m doing OK. A little diarrhea this morning but otherwise no problems. We’ve seen a few interesting things on this trip so far, and I will write more later. Internet access is not easy to come by most days.
The picture below is the famed first bend of Nujiang (怒江), the last hope for river conservationists in China. Its main course remains free of dams, unbridled and wild.
Here’s an update on this story: U.S. Embassy Creates New Air Quality Description for Beijing: Crazy Bad
According to the U.S. Embassy’s air quality monitor in Beijing, Beijing’s Air Quality Index as of 1:00AM on November 18, 2010 is 464.
From: http://iphone.bjair.info/
This is the worst AQI I’ve seen.  Ironically, I was having lunch with a friend yesterday and we were both pretty happy about how good the air in Beijing had been the last few weeks, clear enough to see quite a few stars at night. I’m in Hong Kong now, glad to be out of the toxic air and the cold weather.
I passed by this solar water heater this morning at about 11 AM. At first I thought, this is pretty cool, it makes good use of space and doubles as a shade for the window. But on second glance I decided that it was one of the worst installations I have seen. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t show everything, but you should be able to pick out some strangeness:
