China this week…
I am in China this week. I flew up from Hong Kong to Shanghai on Tuesday. Tonight (Wednesday) I flew to Beijing where I’ll spend two days before returning to Hong Kong on Friday night. China continues to amaze me. The pace of development is heart-stopping and everytime I visit China more changes. The attached picture is the basement of what will soon be one of the world’s tallest buildings. You’ll see lots of other buildings in the background. This is the Pudong area of Shanghai. When I first visited here in 1996, the area was one giant construction site and I can’t remember there being one building over five stories high.
The real shocker of this trip was Beijing. I stepped off the airplane to be greeted by the most atrocious air pollution I’ve ever experienced. As I inhaled, I could feel the air grazing my lungs and throat like a light sandpaper… and burning my eyes, too. It was truly horrible. At the conference I attended this week in Shanghai, there was much discussion and concern about China’s pollution – reportedly, the current air pollution particulate levels in Beijing are THREE TIMES the maximum amount that the WHO says adult humans can tolerate. I can’t wait to go home to clean Hong Kong. Hah!
