China Record Olympic Record....Must Do Better

It is very appropriate that on the opening day of the Olympics in China that we should make a comment on pollution.

Part of our great anticipation about going to visit China was the magnitude and natural beauty of the country. Well perhaps it was the season that we arrived or the particular cities that we visited, but we did not see the sky (blue or otherwise) from the moment we arrived at Guangzhou until we reached Shanghai 8 days later. Its true; the sky seemed laden with a weight of clouds of tiny particles of dirt. A pall constantly hovered about a couple of thousand feet above our heads. This was caused in local opinion by dust blown in from the country. This was caused in world opinion by grossly negligent pollution.

This is a very real, evident and urgent problem. It is effecting millions of Chinese directly and world opinion indirectly - although it seems the Chinese Government care little about either. Unfortunately the evidence of polluters is everywhere. Power plants that dot the landscape spew effluents into the air, pipes by the rivers have a constant flow of sludge into the waters and traffic in the cities is mind-blowing. We just read that China has now overtaken the US as the world's #1 overall polluter per capita - and that's quite an achievement. From morning till dusk the sky was a murky grey with visibility extending no more than 500 feet around you. A clear example was when we had to cross the "Long River" north of Shanghai by ferry. The river was only about a quarter of a mile wide but in the middle we could not see either shore: only the mud brown soup that was the famous Yangtze.




Now don't get us wrong, we had one of the most fabulous, enlightening and pleasant experiences ever in our trip to China. The Chinese people, the diverse cultures, the marvelous foods and the ancient history were a mind bogglingly delight. But this pollution blight has received much press ahead of the Olympics and rightly so. If China is to take over the position of world leader then this is an area it must improve.

On a lighter note, we did finally see some clearing in the sky when we arrived in Shanghai making all the difference; it brightened everything from our demur to the fabulous architecture. At last we had the city image we had read about - check out the famous Bund waterfront.