TINI TRAN, AP – Jun 20, 2009 Beijing’s notoriously dirty air was cleaner during last summer’s Olympic games, but pollution levels were still much worse than at recent Olympics, despite a massive Chinese cleanup campaign, a new report said. Athletes in Beijing faced pollution levels that were up to 3.5 times higher than those in [...]
Posts under ‘Olympics’
I Thought It Got Easier To Breathe Back There In August!
James Fallows, The Atlantic – 07 Jan 2009 12:34 pm As attentive readers may recall, the air in Beijing through the six months before the Olympic games was almost unbelievably horrible. Lest we forget: this was the view out my window in mid-June, which was not that different from how it had been day upon [...]
Smog Chokes Beijing Despite Traffic Caps
Shi Jiangtao in Beijing, SCMP – Updated on Dec 09, 2008 Beijing saw some of its worst air pollution in the past six months yesterday, with its skyline engulfed in a blanket of smog. This followed a brief respite during the Olympic Games, when prolonged traffic bans were put in place to clear the air. [...]
Beijing To Reinstate Car Ban
Associated Press | 11 October 2008 Beijing will ban half of its 3.4 million cars from the roads during periods of very heavy pollution, state media reported yesterday. The city would temporarily reinstate measures introduced during the Olympic Games and ban cars on alternate days – depending on whether their number plates were odd or [...]
Beijing Goes (Reluctantly) Off-Road
China Journal –Juliet Ye – October 10, 2008, 7:14 am Beijing’s private car restrictions are set to go into effect tomorrow, in an effort to bring back the days of clean air and more peaceful street’s the bustling city enjoyed during the Olympics. Naturally, many of the city’s road warriors aren’t happy about it. Under [...]
Beijing Smog Takes Shine Off ‘Golden Week’
Al Guo – SCMP – Updated on Oct 04, 2008 The National Day “golden week” holiday ushered in the predicted post-Olympic deterioration in air quality, with the capital suffering four consecutive days of “light air pollution” up to yesterday. Smog, the hallmark of bad air quality, has hovered above Beijing since Tuesday, the second day [...]
‘Yellow-Label’ Cars Face Ban in Beijing
‘Yellow-label’ cars face ban from city in green drive Zhuang Pinghui – SCMP – Updated on Oct 03, 2008 Beijing will phase out polluting vehicles known as “yellow-label” cars over the next year in a bid to improve the capital’s notoriously poor air quality. Beijing issues yellow labels to cars whose emission levels fail to [...]
Beijing Set For New Measures On Vehicle Use
Agence France-Presse in Beijing – Updated on Sep 29, 2008 Beijing will implement new traffic control measures aimed at clearing the capital’s smoggy skies and road congestion. However, the measures will not be as tough as the rules implemented for the Olympics. From Wednesday, 30 per cent of government vehicles would be taken off the [...]
Keeping Up With China’s Olympic Shine – Part II
Keeping Up With China’s Olympic Shine – Part II Shoppers, intent on bargains, bear some responsibility for Asia’s pollution Alexandra Harney – YaleGlobal – 24 September 2008 China has become known as factory to the world – as manufacturers invested in factories to take advantage of a labor force that accepts low wages and a [...]
Pollution Fight
Updated on Sep 24, 2008 – SCMP The South China Morning Post did a great job keeping us abreast of the pollution in Beijing leading up to the Olympics. We saw the progress (both good and bad) from regular photos taken from the same point over the Forbidden City. I would like to see them [...]