Week 55 · January 27, 2015 · Beijing, China
Beijing &
A week late with this update — pacing myself. We had the same tour guide as a similar trip I took a while back — worked out well as she manoeuvred us through the various tourist traps for two days at the Wall and historical sites in Beijing.
A week late with this update — pacing myself. Not much happening locally — did have an interesting conversation with a co-worker that resulted in the statement — “Stella McCartney's parents are famous too?” — generational/cultural, who knows?
We missed Alexandra — she would have liked all the rules and structure. But she is pretty much on vacation full time so we don't feel too bad.
We had the same tour guide as a similar trip I took a while back — worked out well as she manoeuvred us through the various tourist traps for two days at the Wall and historical sites in Beijing. We then had the last day on our own and went back to Tiananmen Square and the Mao mausoleum. No pictures allowed in the mausoleum — so you are spared.
We confirmed China does not allow true internet access — at the Great Wall — uploading to Facebook was super fast, I could see other friends that had checked in. But in most places had no access to Facebook and our guide had given up on Facebook a while back. Similar story with CNN and other news sites. Our guide told us that the first time she saw the picture of the tank in Tiananmen Square in the protests of 1989 was in 2012 — when a tourist had it on their phone.
The other thing that hits you in the face — the air pollution. Air quality index of between 200–300 when we were there, which is heavily polluted — far worse than anywhere in the US now. It was pretty overwhelming and the sun was just a glow. Can't imagine a 600 plus day.
Beijing's air quality index (AQI) of 200–300, described here as “heavily polluted,” falls in the Very Unhealthy to Hazardous range on the US EPA scale. Days above 300 — described as unimaginable — do occur: in January 2013 Beijing recorded readings above 500, and a sensor at the US Embassy briefly read “beyond index” at over 900. China has significantly improved its air quality since 2015 through coal power restrictions and industrial controls, with Beijing's average AQI roughly halving by the early 2020s. China's internet censorship system — the Great Firewall — blocks Facebook, Google, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and most major Western news sites including CNN. VPNs are widely used but officially illegal. The guide's account of seeing the Tiananmen Square tank photograph for the first time in 2012 — on a tourist's phone — reflects the information environment that ordinary Chinese citizens navigate.
On the way up the wall on the chairlift, I dropped my Samsung Note about 100 feet. A park worker retrieved it via the toboggan slide — rode down, got off, found the bright orange phone. At the base of The Great Wall, last March it was all local vendors hustling stuff. Now Burger King. The phone survived. The Burger King was not investigated.