The big news in Beijing these days is the smog.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just Beijing.\u00a0 All of northeast China is suffering.\u00a0 It\u2019s been really high for several days.\u00a0 All the television news is discussing it.\u00a0 It\u2019s page one in the newspapers. \u00a0It\u2019s really thick, and visibility is bad.\u00a0 There is a slight smoky smell of \u201cburning tires\u201d.\u00a0 The weather people are saying a cold front is coming in on Wednesday night and will blow it all away.<\/p>\n
Hearing all the discussion from the Chinese viewpoint, while living with it, in Beijing, is pretty interesting.\u00a0 There is a lot of talk about the health issues, versus the economic issues involved with shutting down factories, etc.\u00a0 I\u2019m enjoying observing the internal debate.\u00a0 I witnessed a scene I wished I could have captured with a camera.\u00a0 A Chinese woman wearing a smog mask was walking down the street on a heavy smog day.\u00a0 She had the mask pulled down around her chin, and was smoking a cigarette.\u00a0 Classic!<\/span><\/p>\n There is also a lot of discussion about the East Asian issues between Japan, Korea, North Korea, the Phillipines, and China.\u00a0 There are lots of prickly issues, and lots of heated talk.\u00a0 Everyone is sniping at each other, and there seems to be purposeful antagonism between all the parties involved.\u00a0 Some of the BHSFIC teachers traveled through Tokyo during the school break, and couldn\u2019t get Chinese currency exchanged in the Tokyo Airport.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The big news in Beijing these days is the smog.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just Beijing.\u00a0 All of northeast China is suffering.\u00a0 It\u2019s been really high for several days.\u00a0 All the television news is discussing it.\u00a0 It\u2019s page one in the newspapers. … Continue reading