don't hold your breath

With more and more cars hitting the road, car exhaust is a major contributor to the poor air quality. I can hardly imagine what will happen if we approach winter and the cold air mass hugs the ground and the air becomes very dry. No wonder that respiratory illnesses are very common in Beijing. Yesterday we had rain in the morning and the rain droplets filtered out the air. Suddenly the city changes: I can see a few more blocks further from my window and the air smells fresher. The fact that we had a small breeze blowing through the city helped as well. Unfortunately the next day, we were back to normal and the smog was omnipresent. Last night on CNN, there was news reporting on the Olympic Games and when the broadcaster mentioned the issue of air quality on the athletes, the screen blackened for the next 10 seconds. The same happened when CNN was reporting on the issues with food quality in China; another 10 seconds of black screen. It will be interesting to see if major changes (environmental, political, social,…) will happen once we are getting closer to the opening day of the games. More about the Games and its influence on the city in upcoming blogs.