Pollution

One of the issues that we are here in Beijing to discuss is the pollution. This picture was taken from my hotel window at about 9:00 a.m. No, it was not a foggy day, nor misting or raining. That is the pollution. And yes, that's the sun being eclipsed by pollution. It has been that way the whole time we've been here, but today was certainly one of the worst. I can taste it even worse than when I was in Torino or Athens and the scratchiness has now turned into a sore throat. It's just unbelievable. People actually walk around and ride their bikes with surgical masks on to help combat the pollution. There is so much construction going on in Beijing right now that a good bit of what you see in this picture is dust and particles from the construction. Most of it, however, is the result of exhaust spewing out from the factories and what seems like millions of cars on the road everyday. We certainly have our work cut out for us leading up to the Olympics.

I'm signing off from Beijing for now. My flight leaves tomorrow morning with quite a few other folks going back to the Springs. My travel schedule is a bit up in the air right now, so I'm not sure if I will have anymore international trips between now and the beginning of June when Andy, Alexis, and I will take off on our European vacation. So stay tuned!