Back from Beijing

I have returned to Chennai from my trip to Beijing. It was a short but good trip. I had a great time, but I think I was ready to come back to Chennai. Of course, I was not ready for the long trip...all the flights were on time, but it still took me 20 hours from door to door to get back...a very long day. Somewhere in those 20 hours, I managed to catch a cold. Therefore, since I have been back, I haven't left the apartment...if it wasn't for the fact that I am now convinced that India beds are even harder than China beds, I would probably still be in bed. Oh well, blowing my nose keeps me from scratching the dozen mosquito bites that I have on my legs that I received on my last night in Beijing...and who said that the mosquitoes are only bad in India?

Anyway after 4 heavy pollution days in Beijing, I am even more appreciative of the clear blue skies and white puffy clouds of Chennai. For some reason when I lived in Beijing, the pollution never seemed to get me down...maybe I just knew that I had to live with it. However, this trip back, the pollution just seemed to get to me...I guess I knew that the grass was greener (or in this case, the sky was bluer) somewhere else. Anyway, unless you have experienced the pollution of Beijing, you'll just have to trust me that it is bad. I can tell you it is bad, but unless you actually see it firsthand, you will truly never realize just what I'm talking about. My mom experienced this when she visited. She had heard me talk about it, but when she saw it with her own two eyes, she made the comment to me that she didn't realize just how bad the air pollution really is in Beijing.

With the summer Olympics in Beijing just over a year away, the Chinese government has assured that there will be clear blue skies during the entire Olympics. Well, even though I have seen firsthand how bad the pollution can be, I am convinced that this will happen. Why? Well, the government will shut down all of the factories and will limit which cars can be on the roads. Can they really do this? Yes! It happened last fall while Steve and I were living there. There was an African summit in Beijing...and for a week, the sky was blue and beautiful in Beijing. The factories had closed down and only cars registered in Beijing were allowed to drive in the city. One of our friends happens to work outside of Beijing, but lives in Beijing. His car is not registered in Beijing...so during this week, he had to take a taxi to the toll booth to meet his driver who wasn't allowed to come into the city. Anyway for the Olympics, I'm sure that the driving restrictions will be more severe...there has been talk that on certain days if your car license plate ends in a certain number you can drive only on those days. Also in the news the last few days has been talk about how the Chinese government is going to send rockets up into the skies to break up any rain clouds before they reach Beijing. The government is promising that the opening and closing ceremonies will be dry as the main Olympic stadium is not enclosed.

Here is a photo of the Olympic Stadium in Beijing that is currently under construction. It is also known as the Bird's Nest. The picture is hazy because it was a typical polluted day when I took this photo.

Other news from Beijing...if you have missed it...last week there were reports that some street vendors in Beijing are using chopped cardboard as a filling in steamed buns. Yum, yum! Now today there is another report out that the first report was false and that the reporter made the whole story up...hmmm, not sure if I'm believing this or not. Of course, I won't be standing in line anytime soon to try the steamed buns of the street vendors...any of my Beijing friends want to volunteer to do this?