First Fengtai, next the world! The answer to the looming energy crisis that threatens the planet has been revealed in a residential community in Beijing’s Fengtai District. In an effort to harness the surfeit energy of retirees, the local residence committee has installed six brightly colored exercise bikes that also function as electric generators.

Read more...

A great debate is taking place across Beijing’s BBS forums and newspaper columns as citizens weigh the pros and cons of extending the odd-even car restrictions that have been in effect since Jul 20 and, along with a series of other measures, have helped to contribute to the great weather and relatively smooth traffic that the city has been enjoying for the past few weeks. According to officials from the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, the city's traffic conditions improved dramatically, with statistics showing that the amount of traffic on major roads dropped 21% and that average speeds increased 27% during the Olympic Games. Traffic conditions have been even better since the “Olympic Lanes” were opened to regular vehicles again.

According to a poll of 5058 residents taken by The Beijing News, nearly 70%  of participants expressed support for extending the restrictions (this is also the rate of support at our own poll over at the forum), 20% of respondents disagreed. Not surprisingly, 82.9% of those without a car supported the proposal, still, an impressive 48.5% of car owners were also in support of making the ban permanent.

Read more...

Blue skies and visibility of up to 40km (you could make out the city’s western hills from the CBD) marked the end of the best month of air quality that Beijing has seen in a long time. Of the 31 days in August, only one (Aug 29 – although the MEPA site still ranks it as a “fairly good” day) went beyond the official blue sky target of 100 as measured on the Air Pollution Index (API) . The rest of the month saw 14 days of “excellent” air quality and 16 “fairly good days.” The previous record, set in 1998, was for a total of 9 days of “excellent” air quality in a single month. Last August there were only two days of “excellent” weather.

Read more...

by Paul Pennay, image Simon Lim




Despite the introduction of a range of measures intended to improve the Beijing's air quality earlier this month, for the past four days measures of the the city's air pollution index (API) have remained above the official target of 100. According to this report in today's China Daily, in the event that the capital's air quality fails to improve by the time the games begin, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau has drawn up emergency plans to implement even stricter air quality-control measures. The measures could see up to 90% of vehicles removed from the roads, all construction sites and more factories closed. Read more...

What local media are calling the worst of the three major sandstorms to hit the capital this spring, rolled into town on Tuesday. A lot of the sand and dust must have lingered in the air as the Ministry of Environmental Protection reported that pollution in the capital reached an eye-irritating 408 yesterday. The picture (left) was taken from Dongzhimen, but seems to indicate that the storm was not as severe as the one that hit on Mar 17 as can be seen by comparing it with the first image below that was taken by a Beijinger forum user and this video captured by Reuters. The 408 reading is likely to be the highest since the index first hit 421 and then peaked at 500 a few days after Christmas last year. December seems to be the worst time for Beijing's air quality, with Danwei reporting the index hitting 500 back in 2006 but it should be noted that the gray soup that appears in December is different from the sandy brown muck that arrives in Spring – see the two images below for a nice comparison of the different tones.

Read more...

Yesterday, the Beijing government announced new measures to ensure the quality of the air in the capital during both the Olympic and Para-Olympic games. The strict rules have been introduced to ensure that Beijing meets the air quality standards that the city committed itself to when competing to get the games. The new regulations call for a halt to all digging and pouring of concrete at the city's many construction sites from July 20 through to September 20. Aside from construction sites, cement manufacturers and concrete mixing plants will also be forced to close up shop. Some of the city's 1,000 gas stations will also be closed.

Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the city's Environmental Protection Bureau, also said that if the air pollution exceeds the standards they have set, authorities are prepared to introduce even stricter measures. He also mentioned that neighboring provinces including Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shandong are also introducing similar measures. In addition to all these measures, authorities also plan to encourage Beijng's citizens to adopt "greener" lifestyle habits.

Asked by a reporter from the Beijing News about the effects of the ban, especially on workers in the construction industry, and the possibility of financial assistance, the deputy director replied that orders to stop production are only aimed at a small minority of heavily polluting industries and that other industries are simply being asked to improve the implementation of pollution control measures. In regard to the question of what will happen to all the construction workers, he replied that everything has already been arranged and there will be no problems.

Read more...

In a city bursting at its seams with mianbao che, a few more white vans don't get much attention. Until, of course, they catch your mianbao che violating the city standards for exhaust emissions.

Exhaust-monitoring vans hit the street this month, using laser technology to measure the carbon levels in the exhaust from passing vehicles. The laser takes less than a second to measure exhaust, and a camera snaps an image of the license plate of any offending vehicle. Minutes later, the driver will be stopped by a nearby cop car and fined RMB 100.

Chinese media reports that there are three vans in operation, with plans for seven more by the end of the year, and twelve more to hit the streets next year (according to The Times, however, there are already 22 in operation). Each van reportedly costs RMB 1.3 million, a significant amount, and we're surprised that the vans aren't getting much of a publicity campaign yet - you'd think that getting residents aware of the threat of being fined would be half the battle. We can't find a close-up photo of the vans, but supposedly they're marked with the words huanbao jiancha (环保检查, environmental monitor).

Xinhua announced last month that from this month on, only cars meeting China IV emission standards (the equivalent of Euro IV) can be sold in the city. Perhaps these standards (which were put into effect in Europe in January 2007, and limit car emissions to 0.25g/km of nitrogen oxides and 0.02 g/km of particulate matter) are being used to measure the city's vehicles.

Read more...

Image courtesy of coeurdelion

The above image was taken this morning from Landmark Towers on the North East corner of the Third Ring Road. In another sign of how grim things are, the Firefox plug-in that flashes weather updates on our desktop currently reads blowing dust.

Links and Sources:
The Beijinger Forum: Smog...fog...haze...what is it?
Beijing Landmark Towers

Read more...

Spring is right around the corner, and with that comes the annual spring sandstorm season. For newbies to Beijing, this means a few months of dust and dirt blowing through town like a vacuum cleaner on reverse, and when it gets bad, conditions can be downright apocalyptic.

2008 is looking especially grim, according to the Beijing Meteorological Station, which is predicting as many as 11 days of dust storms this year due to a warm winter and less rainfall in the desert areas surrounding the capital.

Xinhua reports that recent years have seen an average of 9.7 days of dust storms, though last year saw only three blow through town. But because 2007 saw 11 percent less precipitation than the average levels of previous years, spring is indeed looking like gritty.

Better dust off those facemasks now.

Read more...

Break out the masks, folks!

According to the State Environmental Protection Administration, the brown haze that descended on our fair city hit a whopping 421 on the Air Pollution Index today. To put that in perspective, on a good day it hovers between 50-150. On a bad day, we're looking at 200 or so.

In fact, today's smog is so bad that the American Environmental Protection Agency rates it as Condition Maroon - or Hazardous. They even go so far as to advise "AQI values over 300 trigger health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected." Doctors recommend not undertaking physical exercise outside, and limiting exposure to the pollution.

Not a day to be leaving the house, if you can avoid it. And if you do, make sure you mask up!

Read more...