Greetings from Beijing

Dear readers,

To make a long story short, I’m back in the blogging business XD

How time flies-it’s been more than 10 months since I wrote the last post. During this time, I completed my Master’s programme at UCL and moved to Beijing. I am now doing a part-time job and another internship in an environmental NGO, whilst looking for other opportunities. 

I had been studying abroad for the past four years and was only back during summer vacations. Air pollution was something that I constantly read or heard about, but not something that I actually experienced. I mean before 2012, I was-like most Chinese-unaware of the issue. Therefore, in these last two months in Beijing, it still frequently strikes me how bad the situation is. 

For a glimpse-central heating in Beijing started last Saturday. On Wednesday, the government issued an orange alert (the second highest in a four-tier ranking system) for heavy air pollution over three consecutive days and advised residents to limit outdoor activities. This is a picture I took near my work place on Friday and the real-time air quality data from the nearest monitoring station:

Not only am I now breathing the reality, I also get to be more exposed to the more practical aspects of the problem through my internship, as one of the main campaigns that the NGO for which I’m working is to reduce sources of air pollution in China, by lobbying for China to move from coal to renewable energy. Therefore, I would like to continue using this blog to record what I see and hear, and hopefully, as I progress, what I think.