We are not in China. We got out. It's our Spring Festival holiday and we have gone to Malaysia again. Our journey involved the usual bus trip to Hong Kong, an overnight stay in a mini room hotel, then a cheap Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur.
It's great to get out of China. The air quality in Zhanjiang this winter has not been good. Usually the weather here is kind of unsettled, with winds blowing off the South China Sea, keeping the air pretty fresh. In the winter, there is more stagnation with prevailing winds coming from the inland. Since there is industry, and a lot more cars, the air has gotten pretty nasty, much worse than when we moved to China five years ago.
I found a website that shows the air quality index for cities around the world, and found that we were experiencing an "unhealthy" level of pollution. Compared to other Chinese cities, not too bad, but still enough to explain my runny nose and burning eyes. Time to close the windows.
When we left on the bus, I was looking forward to getting out of the smog since about half the trip to Hong Kong is through farm land, forest and mountains. Unfortunately, the air was consistently vile all the way to Hong Kong, regardless of location. The high pressure over Guangdong province has been there for weeks, so I guess all the industrial flatulence that a Chinese industrial juggernaut can produce has been filling the entire province.
When we took off from Hong Kong it was nice to bid farewell to the yellow air. The high pressure zone is quite visible. It's the sky blue area above the thick, yellow miasma that everyone below is suffering in. I'm hoping that by the time we return in mid February, the spring weather patterns will have returned.
It's great to get out of China. The air quality in Zhanjiang this winter has not been good. Usually the weather here is kind of unsettled, with winds blowing off the South China Sea, keeping the air pretty fresh. In the winter, there is more stagnation with prevailing winds coming from the inland. Since there is industry, and a lot more cars, the air has gotten pretty nasty, much worse than when we moved to China five years ago.
I found a website that shows the air quality index for cities around the world, and found that we were experiencing an "unhealthy" level of pollution. Compared to other Chinese cities, not too bad, but still enough to explain my runny nose and burning eyes. Time to close the windows.
When we left on the bus, I was looking forward to getting out of the smog since about half the trip to Hong Kong is through farm land, forest and mountains. Unfortunately, the air was consistently vile all the way to Hong Kong, regardless of location. The high pressure over Guangdong province has been there for weeks, so I guess all the industrial flatulence that a Chinese industrial juggernaut can produce has been filling the entire province.
When we took off from Hong Kong it was nice to bid farewell to the yellow air. The high pressure zone is quite visible. It's the sky blue area above the thick, yellow miasma that everyone below is suffering in. I'm hoping that by the time we return in mid February, the spring weather patterns will have returned.
We really want to go!!!
And we are outa here!
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