Last Saturday was my last day in Harbin for a while. I need a break from freezing my ass off. The American students took the train Saturday night I woke Sunday morning to the melodious voices of propaganda infotainment about the wonderful city of Beijing. After a long haul of heavy, overstuffed backpacks and suitcases to and fro, I was ready to settle in to my new apartment and new life. In the past week I have spent thousands of yuan on rent, furniture, and appliances with my great new roommate and fellow Fulbrighter, Julia. This includes haggling over the prices of plates and bowls, spending about 6 hours at Ikea, and begging the owner to buy me a desk that isn’t 24 inches wide (think about it, that’s tiny). It’s been tiring physically, mentally, and financially, but things should improve rapidly. I also look forward to using our full-size built-in oven that is so coveted in China/Asia. To say the least, I am in love with my new Beijing life (except the air quality part), and hope these next ten months are fulfilling.
Posts Tagged ‘ Harbin ’
Look What I Get To Live In!
(image of bicyclists in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square via nytimes) The UN Environment Program released a report last Thursday (side note: good typography, color choices, UN!) about the thick clouds of smog and soot over Asia and the likely effects it has on health, food security, and environmental changes. Due to the unprecedented nature of these noxious brown clouds, the exact consequences of their presence is not confirmed. Regardless of the consequences, it seems like countries are dilly-dallying around until the human/environmental toll is too hard to ignore, which may be years away. By then it will be too late. The world needs to get on this shit, pronto. And seriously this time. On a related note, though I may not be dying, I am still suffering. Now that I have finished consuming about 200 pills in the past two weeks, I don’t feel much better. I don’t really want to continue taking these pills. For one, I can’t bring myself to trust Western medicine produced in China. Second, I don’t like eating too many antibiotics over a long period of time. I mean, what if I created a mutant bacteria and created the next Avian Flu? Anyways, every time I
I’m Not Dying!
Around this time last year, I unknowingly developed an allergy to dust. My nose was constantly stuffed and I had an intense and loogie-filled cough. By springtime I was so uncomfortable that I went to health services at Brown, but the doctors there couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. She suggested I see an allergist, but I never did. Things got worse, and persisted through the summer, long after hayfever season. After finally visiting an allergist this summer, I found out that I had developed an allergy to dust. I took antibiotics that cleared up my nose, but I still had a phlegm issue that often left me short of breath. It was hard to figure out what was going on, primarily because I was moving around so much. By the time I went to the doctor at Brown, I had a few months left before going to New York for the summer, then home for two weeks, and then off to China. I went to the hospital at Harbin Institute of Technology, and getting any help from the doctors was impossible. The doctor asked what was wrong, I started to explain, but before I got into my
Harbin’s “Fog”
On October 17, the “fog” was unusually heavy, and I couldn’t figure out why. All I knew was that I was glad to be leaving Harbin for 9 days. I should have taken a photo of what the sky looks like on a normal and polluted day. But I stumbled upon this air quality reading from the SEPA website: The red line is Harbin. For those of you who can’t read it, it says that Harbin’s AQI is: TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THREE. 2-7-3. Here are the Air Quality Index (AQI) ratings: 0-50 Good is usually green 51-100 Moderate is usually yellow 101-150 Unhealthy for sensitive groups is usually orange 151-200 Unhealthy is usually red 201-300 Very unhealthy is usually purple I think they chose the color purple because that’s what color you turn into after breathing dirty air for a long time. I still wonder what caused such heavy pollution in Harbin that day, though I would guess it could be the coal plants firing up to start government regulated heating.
How Do Chinese People Celebrate National Day?
Wednesday was Chinese National Day (The People’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949), and many Chinese people have the entire week off. Aside from going home to visit families, what else do they do? Why, shopping, of course! All the stores had big sales, people were all over the streets, and red flags were everywhere. I am not suprirsed that commercialization of holidays has reached developing countries such as China. I know that in the States, stores like Macy’s always broadcast their Memorial Day or 4th of July sales, but as to whether there a culture of commericalization in China has existed for a while, I have no researched answer. I have the notion that it began (and has since then snowballed) as China developed rapidly over the last twenty years or so. But in all seriousness, a lot of people use this break to go home and visit family (and, while at home, sit around and study or play video games all day–sad). According to Wikipedia, every five years, the National Day celebration is out of control. Can’t wait to experience that next year.