Before this trip I was wondering a bit what kind of outdoor activities we could do with Jinlin. Jinlins hometown Xinxiang is by Chinese standards a "boring" city with very limited historical or modern outdoors sightseeing possibilities and the time of the year is not particularly good for nature. Yesterday Jinlin took me to the "only nice place to see" (according to her description): the Xinxiang Zoo. That was nice and I'll post some pictures later.
Well, now it seems that our problem of finding nice outdoor activities has been at least temporarily removed by another problem: air pollution. The current weather conditions (cold stagnant air) combined with the heavy industry and traffic in this area has lead to heavy levels "Smog": the combination of fog and lung-damaging particulate matter that used to plague California but nowadays China. Air pollution real-time monitoring system gives current "air pollution index" of Zhengzhou-Xinxiang area to be 291, which means "Heavily Polluted" and falling just short of the 300 "Severely polluted" line. In the past 24 hours the index has reached 412 at maximum:
The "Severely polluted" (300+) level is described as "Healthy people will experience reduced endurance in activities. There may be strong irritations and symptoms and may trigger other illnesses. Elders and the sick should remain indoors and avoid exercise. Healthy individuals should avoid outdoor activities." Here is a picture I took today outside of our hotel:
Many people wear breathing masks on streets here nowadays, though I am not sure how well simple masks filter away the fine particulate matter. I do not envy the many people who work at streets selling food and other stuff from early morning to late night - often elderly people who might have other health problems already.
Well, it's still better than Beijing at the moment where the air pollution index goes over the top of the 500-point scale:
Jinlin said that now that we have seen the nice locations and there is heavy air pollution, we can just cuddle in the hotel room watching movies. That's very fine for me, but I will still get her some evening to some more Karaoke duet singing as well :-)
Some recent articles about air pollution in China:
Some recent articles about air pollution in China:
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