北京的污染

When I was younger, a lot of people told me Beijing was polluted, even post-Olympics. When I first arrived in Beijing in late August, I was too excited to even notice the difference in the air quality. I’m sure Manila is not unpolluted, but Beijing’s air is definitely dirtier than back home. Anyway, for the first few weeks colds haunted me over and over again but I eventually overcame them. Since then, my body has become accustomed to the air, or at least that’s what I thought. With it being my second semester and all, it never occurred to me that I’d be encountering these same problems again. The cough and colds, sore throat and dry throat that have been accompanying me for the past couple of days has been nothing but an annoyance. A couple of weeks back someone told me that the pollution levels in Beijing reached up to 400. How bad is that? Apparently in Germany when it gets to 50 they start to semi-panic. So yes, definitely very bad for people living in Beijing. I say this with much conviction, Beijing is definitely cutting off a lot of years off my life. Haha.

Getting back to the story; a few weeks back, I discovered that on the days I’m amused that I can actually see the sun in its red (but hazy) glory, my lungs are dying much quicker. Apparently, it’s very polluted when it gets to that point. Guess I’m going to stop being amused at being able to see the sun. Also I, and as I’ve noticed a lot of my fellow foreigners at the language program as well, have been suffering from these weird cough, colds, dry sore throat, not feeling too well dilemma these past few days.

Then again, there’s really nothing much I can do. I’ll just have to put up with it for now and hope that medicines and vitamins will help alleviate the problems soon. I should definitely move back South next time. I miss Xiamen and Guangdong. And Hong Kong! Still, I love Beijing and I think it’s awesome in so many ways. But I don’t see myself living here too long-term unless it’s for something very very important.