2 posts tagged “china”
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)
I am sure whether you are a person who looks at the news or not, you must have heard of the two natural disasters happen in Asia - Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma last week and Earthquake which Wenchuan County on Monday. In both countries, the effects are enormous and devastating. Here are some extracts from the news:
Burma:
A UN official says the regime has erected more checkpoints to ensure foreigners cannot reach affected areas.
The latest official figures put the death toll at almost 38,500 with 27,838 more missing, state radio said.
The UN says up to 2.5m people need urgent aid and has called a meeting of regional and donor nations to discuss "all options" on aid.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday's meeting of donors and the Association of South-East Asian Nations would discuss the "mobilisation of resources and aid workers".
He "regretted" the UN had spent much of its time arranging rather than delivering help.
"Even though the [Burmese] government has shown some sense of flexibility, at this time it's far, far too short," he said.
Meanwhile, forecasters say another cyclone is forming off Burma's coast.
The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center said on its website that "a significant tropical cyclone" could develop in the next 24 hours.
China:
Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.
More than 25,000 are still trapped in the rubble two days after the 7.9 quake struck, flattening homes, schools and entire villages and cutting roads.
Soldiers have begun to reach the isolated epicentre by helicopter and on foot, bringing much needed supplies.
Officials reached the town of Yingxiu, in Wenchuan County, to find the devastation was worse than expected - out of the town's population of 10,000, only 2,300 have been found alive.
The head of a police unit sent into the disaster zone said the losses had been severe.
"Some towns basically have no houses left," Wang Yi, told Sichuan Online news site. "They have all been razed to the ground."
The BBC's Michael Bristow says there are collapsed buildings all along the road to the nearby city of Beichuan.
How can you help?
Here are some links for some organizations who are working in Burma and China at the moment. Please support them because people in those areas need their help!
Unicef - http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=9fLEJSOALpE&b=1023561
World Vision (UK) - https://www.worldvision.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.127
Red Cross (UK) - http://www.redcross.org.uk/donatesection.asp?id=77029&campaigntab=single
