Trip to Provence (2) + 9 Days left till the Beijing Olympics!!
Sunset there is beautiful!!!
More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymichael/sets/72157606080148134/
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With nine days to go, I will keep blogging about my trips to Provence every day, with a little bit of information and my opinion about both China and the 2008 Olympics!
Perhaps the second argument is the air quality of the city. I admit that the air is really polluted. According to the BBC readings, the indexes are 3 times higher than the WHO standards. I went to Beijing some years ago, and I can tell you that it was far worse.
I can find a definite reason for its pollution - according to wikipedia, Beijing has a population of 17.4 million, while London has 7.6 million. And the trend is each family has at least one car in Beijing. So you can imagine the pollution to be at least "double London".
However, there is no doubt that China has done a lot of work to try to get its air better - every factories and most gas station is closed down for the past 3 months, and Beijing has banned half of the cars on the street. THe most significant change is that its sulphur oxide concentration has decreased from 71μg/ m3 to 47μg/ m3 in 7 years. Organisations, such as GreenPeace, have recognised the work done by the government, yet it hasn't meet the standards.
I doubt the government can introduce any more measures to help clear up the air because they have done everything they can. Let's hope wind will blow the pollution away from the Olympic city.
Latest update: According to the BBC News records, the pollution level in Beijing finally meets the WHO interim target for developing countries yesterday. (28/7/2008)
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