Things are heating up here in China. There’s something in the air that you can just feel. It’s not like electricity per se, but it does have the stench of power to it. That, or the stench is just overpowering and the feeling is that of pollutants clinging to your skin.
Fortunately the government is concerned about the amount of pollution in the city. Unfortunately, they are not concerned with the repercussions of heavy industry on the environment. Rather, they are concerned that it will not be sunny and warm everyday during the Olympics. What are they doing about this problem? Experimenting with making it rain and making it stop raining.
This summer is the last chance to practice before the Olympics. Everyday it rains, and everyday it is sunny, we have to wonder whether the weather is supposed to be the way it is, or whether the government ordered up a storm. I also am curious about what is actually falling from the sky, but there are some things that I would rather not ask.
With that in mind, I took a few chances to get outside the city limits in the last few weeks. (perhaps this time could have been spent blogging, but I thought I’d keep you all on the edge of your seats for a while).
First, I went with Grant to a place to the Southwest known internationally as the Marco Polo Bridge. In China it has a different name lugouqiao 芦沟桥，and it is not famous because of Marco Polo at all. In fact, it is doubtful that mr. Polo ever went there (it is also doubtful that he ever made it to China at all, but I would prefer to believe that he did. The bridge itself is not too special, but next to it there is a restored walled-city that is completely worth the free entrance. Both of these places were sites of battle with the Japanese, and remain areas of tension and bad memories. Had we visited a day earlier, we would have see a large anti-Japanese rally in remembrance of the past.
Inspired by the walled-city, we went to see the country scale version: the GREAT WALL OF CHINA. Apparently the wall was recently placed on a list of wonders of the modern world, it may even be number one. No one seemed too interested in the wall’s new-found status. Lots of people did care about making a few extra RMB. We paid to get onto the wall, then an old woman with a stick tried to make us pay to get off the wall, and finally a farmer made us pay to walk across his property to get back to the road. All this is not to mention the fact that our cab driver left without us—forcing us to spend more money and employ a new driver to take us home.
Nevertheless, the wall is impressive. Looking at the state of my bicycle, electronics, bed and other Chinese-built products, it’s hard to believe that anything “made in China” could last for thousands of years. I guess that’s the wondrous thing that puts the wall on the list.
Finally, I trekked four hours away from the city to… you guessed it! The GREAT WALL OF CHINA. Again. For a beach party. The best part was the approach to the beach, when the sky all of a sudden turned from smoggy grey to sky blue. I never would have expected it. We spent the whole night hanging out on the sand by the wall, and were amazed to be able to look at stars for the first time in months.
All this is to say that I’m pretty excited to go back to New Hampsire. A little bit of nature goes a long way, but by now I’m ready to go a long way for a lot of nature.
Posts
