Monday: Clear skies in Beijing

This morning we are seeing clearer skies than we've been seeing in the last week.  Pictures to come soon.  Sunday we had heavy rainfall and winds.  That always helps clean out the gunk in the air!

Beijing has blue skies almost daily!

(is this one of the "blue sky" days??)

I love this site! I also love how the Chinese government created a system to rate air pollution that yields the following results:

• In July 2008, there were 26 blue sky days (i.e., only 5 days were "somewhat polluted" or above.)

By this standard, there are no polluted days in the United States - not even in San Bernadino County (currently #1 in the U.S. for air pollution).

Anyway, check out the website linked above. The photographer has taken daily shots of the view outside his window for hundreds of days. He also provides Beijing's government-issued pollution ranking for each particular day. Please check it out. You will now excuse me while I go to Costco to buy a gas mask for next week's trip to China.

PEK: Beijing International Airport's newest terminal

Yes, surely most people have heard of Beijing's amazing new airport terminal, but I really want to put up a brief post on it. Well, it is quite impressive. Its ultra-modern design certainly makes those of us who use LAX and JFK jealous!

Aviation in China

We hope that China can handle the major increases in air passengers during the next few weeks! This story is quite frightening:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080729105124.fz8pp5h0&show_article=1