Xi Has the Common Touch

Xi Jinping made an unannounced visit to a Beijing restaurant yesterday

Millions of Chinese are already making their way home for Spring Festival that starts on February 5. Many major cities are emptying out and people are heading on trains, buses and planes for the next week or so.

Yesterday Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised diners by dropping into a small restaurant in Beijing. On state television Xi was seen asking how much a bowl of rice noodles was and how long the owners had been in the city.

He praised deliverymen for being like diligent bees

As diners stood up to take pictures, he told them not to stop eating on his account. "I'm just passing through," he said.

The last time Xi unexpectedly interacted with the public was in 2014 when he visited courtyard homes and chatted with passers-by on one particularly smoggy day.

This time the Chinese President also chatted with deliverymen who spend all day delivering packages around Beijing.

"You are the most diligent, like diligent bees, traveling here and there and being exposed to the sun and rain. It's not easy," Xi told them.

He asked if they would be going home for Spring Festival, and one replied in the affirmative. The rest were probably thinking, "I need to feed my family", or "The boss made me work".

Xi even wrapped dumplings, but how did they look?

Xi also visited policemen and even made dumplings with residents in a courtyard building in Qianmen.

We have the photographic, but how did his dumplings look?

The Most Bizarre Reason for Beijing's Smog

Beijing's smog today (left) and what it looked like last month (right)

Now that Golden Week is over, everyone's back to work, and that means the smog has returned to Beijing.

This morning the air looked gray and the Air Quality Index measured at 213 -- which means heavily polluted.

The skies today were in stark contrast to August and September when there were clear blue skies that were hailed as some of the best air quality since officials began releasing data on PM2.5 -- microscopic particles that can be harmful to lungs.

A woman puts on a mask to try to avoid the smog

The smog congregated in Beijing because the air was static. But also officials are blaming residents from using everything from hair gel, perfume and air fresheners for the smog.

Really.

State media released a report from Beijing's Bureau of Environmental Protection from back in May, saying household emissions -- everything from cooking and hair sprays to perfume and air fresheners accounted for 12 percent of the city's total.

That would equate household emissions with industrial emissions.

How ridiculous is that?

Shi Aijun, deputy dean of the Beijing Academy of Environmental Sciences told Science and Technology Daily that daily emissions had been growing -- especially from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that give everyday products like perfume, hair gel and air fresheners their smell.

But Peng Yingdeng, a researcher from the Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection said it would be hard to measure the impact of these products on air quality.

Did hair gel, perfume and air fresheners cause the smog?

"It is difficult to pinpoint exactly how much these consumer products like hair gel contributed to PM2.5 levels since VOCs are not pollutants themselves and produce PM2.5 only after a chemical reaction. At the moment we can only calculate an estimate from the use of these products," Peng said.

So there is even disagreement in the scientific community about this.

State media reports said local emissions accounted for two-thirds of the pollution in Beijing last year, the rest from surrounding areas. Vehicle exhaust fumes were the biggest culprit, and the reports claimed households contributed the same level of pollution as mainly printing and vehicle manufacturers.

The population of Beijing was 21.7 million last year -- did all those people use hair gel, perfume and air fresheners? Highly unlikely.

Local authorities and the scientific community have to find another reason why the smog is so bad because the reasoning just stinks.

Hong Kong's Smog-Filled Air

The serious smog levels made it difficult to see across Victoria Harbour today

This morning I woke up to... haze.

Looking out towards Victoria Harbour, I could not distinguish between the water and land -- it was all like a fog, but it really was terribly polluted air.

At 2pm, readings at Hong Kong's 13 general stations as well as three roadside stations had reached "very high" or "serious" health risk levels. Six stations reported scores of 10+, the highest possible, indicating a serious health risk.

Children, the elderly and people with heart or respiratory issues were advised to avoid staying outdoors, especially in areas with heavy traffic.

And yet when I was out in the streets I hardly saw anyone of us don a mask.

Air quality readings went through the roof today

Are we the stupid ones? Or is the government stupid to let our air quality deteriorate so badly?

An Environmental Protection Department spokesman said the pollution was brought by high pressure over the western North pacific as well as light winds locally.

"In addition, Hong Kong is also being affected by an airstream with higher background pollutant concentrations from the Pearl River Delta," the spokesman said.

That's code for blaming the mainland for the pollution, but in the last few years most of the factories across the border have closed down. So where is the pollution really coming from?

The spokesman added that the sunshine, together with "higher than normal" levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulates, had enhanced the smog, resulting in high pollution.

Nitrogen dioxide comes from emissions from cars, trucks, buses, machinery and power plants. Surely a good chunk of that was pollution was made locally.

We can expect the air pollution to be bad these next few days... how visitor-friendly and how nice we get to breathe in this terrible air quality.

Why aren't our lawmakers pushing for the government to do more to improve our living conditions? Surely this is an issue everyone can get behind?

Quote of the Day: Smog is a Meteorological Disaster

Intense smog days in Beijing may now be called "meteorological disasters"

This news item should be filed under "absurdity of the day": Beijing authorities are considering classifying severe smog days as "meteorological disasters", along with torrential rain, blizzards and drought, according to draft regulations on natural disaster mitigation submitted yesterday.

Director of the municipal government's legal affairs office, Liu Zhengang, said smog was "a combined result of man-made pollution and natural weather conditions", so it was appropriate to call the phenomenon a meteorological disaster," reported the Beijing News.

Tianjin and Hebei, Beijing's neighbours, have already classified smog as weather disasters, so the authorities in the Chinese capital felt it was "necessary" to do the same for "regional cooperation on tackling smog", the report said.

Apparently meteorological disasters caused 111 deaths in Beijing from 2001 to 2014, and caused direct financial losses of 22.5 billion yuan.

Heavy smog deters many from venturing outside

The regulations call for the capital city to set up "wind corridors", where the heights of buildings will be regulated to harness natural breezes to channel smog from urban areas.

How can the government regulate this when there are so many tall buildings up already?

And really? Smog is a meteorological disaster?

Sounds like the government wants to avoid having to take responsibility for the air pollution in the city, and blame it on Mother Nature.

Before the Beijing Olympics -- almost eight years ago -- the city prided itself on being able to control the weather by shooting silver iodide cloud seeding into the air to make it rain.

However it seems unable to control the amount of air pollution spewing into the atmosphere

Beijing's annual PM2.5 levels still stood at 80.6 micrograms per cubic metre last year, eight times the safety limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

Perhaps the government is shirking from its responsibility because the task of tackling air pollution is so overwhelming that it doesn't know where to begin?

The so-called "wind corridors" are a cop out. Reminds me of when the Hong Kong government wanted to reclaim land from Victoria Harbour, saying it would be a good thing to make the speed of the water flowing through the area move faster, so it could flush out contaminants.

However, the water is rushing so fast now that hardly any sea life can be detected below.

If Hong Kong was a true democracy -- and China too -- would these inept officials still be in power?

Xiamen: Day One

Xiamen on a rainy Wednesday late afternoon overlooking Yundang Lake

Our three-day trip to Xiamen got off to an unauspicious start when our flight was delayed an hour. After we checked in, we received a text message from Dragon Air saying it was delayed for no particular reason, and then after we boarded the plane, we sat there for another half hour because the water system was faulty.

Marinated goose with the garlic sauce

And yes -- there were naughty mainland Chinese children on the flight. One row ahead of us was a family of five -- the mother, a baby and their eldest daughter sitting in the front row of economy, then behind them the father and second daughter who was about two years old. The girl kept talking loudly and intermittently shouting, screaming, crying -- and yet the father didn't discipline her to quiet down, or tell her she was disturbing other people, that she was not behaving.

He let her be loud and dramatic and the rest of us had to deal with it. I don't know if the father was too embarrassed to say anything, or he is usually that indulgent, but that girl certainly did not have any manners. Only when the plane landed and we were waiting to disembark was she quiet!

As soon as we walked out of the airport we could smell cigarette smoke -- we were definitely in the People's Republic of China! Thankfully the long taxi queue moved quickly and in less than 10 minutes we were in a cab and on our way through rainy Xiamen.

Many of the apartment buildings that are six or seven stories high are run down, with architectural styles left over from the early 90s, featuring white tiled buildings with small balconies where people hang their laundry. Closer to town there are more swankier, taller apartment blocks that look sleek because there are no balconies.

Delicious rice cooked with peanuts, taro and dried shrimp

Turns out our hotel is in the more posh part of town, complete with Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Aquascutum, and Bally boutiques with no customers in them. Our hotel room looks over Yundang Lake, and we hope to get to walk around the circumference, which should take about an hour or so of brisk walking. There's also a lot of tea shops near us, as the province is best known for producing tea leaves on terraced hilly terrain.

When we arrived it was raining and so it's fog not smog we're seeing, but overall the air here is fresh -- a nice change from smoggy Hong Kong.

Since we arrived late in the afternoon we had an early dinner in a nearby restaurant, that serves all kinds of Chinese food -- Cantonese (even dim sum at night), Shanghainese, Sichuanese, and some Fujianese. We try going local and order lo sui or master sauce goose -- less than half a bird marinated in a soy sauce concoction that was very tender and flavourful. It went very well with a minced garlic vinegar sauce,

Assorted small fish (lots of bones!) cooked with Chinese celery

Another local dish was fresh assorted small fish cooked in a claypot with Chinese celery, radish and peppers. This was another tasty dish, the fish cooked perfectly, but required a lot of patience because the bones in the fish were so small! But like my relative remarked, eating the entire fish was like eating fish cheek, the most tender and sweetest part of the fish.

We also picked a healthy option of stir-fried vegetables with gingko that are meant to improve memory and eyesight, wood ear fungus, wai san, a kind of white yam root, lots of lily bulbs and carrots. And finally another Fujianese  dish was rice cooked with shrimp and cubes of taro topped with peanuts that was delicious -- and even better with spoonfuls of the soup left over from the fish dish.

Stir-fried vegetables including wai san, gingko and fungus

It was so good that we finished everything -- and the bill only came to 230 yuan for the three of us. If only Hong Kong prices were like that!

The Truth About Air Pollution in China

Air pollution in Beijing is apparently not as bad as some other cities in China

A new study by Greenpeace and Peking University shows that air pollution kills more people than smoking in many cities in China.

The smog-inducing pollutants known as PM2.5 caused 257,000 premature deaths across the mainland's 31 cities and provincial capitals in 2013 according to the study, an average of about 90 in every 100,000 deaths.

But the averages were higher in 12 of the 31 cities, including Shijiazhuang, Nanjing, Tianjin and Chongqing, where at least 100 out of every 100,000 deaths were caused by PM2.5.

These two averages were higher than the official mortality rate for smoking, which was about 70 per 100,000 deaths in 2012, according to Greenpeace.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are some cities, like those in Hebei province that are even more polluted, but were not included in the survey.

Although many complain about Beijing's smog, the Chinese capital actually measured 79 of every 100,000 premature deaths due to air pollution, lower than 21 other cities featured.

Peking University professor Pan Xiaochuan said the survey team tried to collect data from more than 100 cities, but many had data that was either incomplete or inconsistent.

This says a lot about not only collecting data properly, but also the individual municipalities' and provinces' concerns about public healthcare issues. PM 2.5 are tiny particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns that can stay lodged in a person's lungs.

While 21 cities have introduced plans to tackle air pollution, setting themselves reduction targets to be met by 2017, Greenpeace says even if such goals were met, only 26,000 deaths could be avoided annually.

The environmental activist group says the entire country needs to make a concerted comprehensive and collected effort to reduce pollution.

There are no official statistics on premature deaths caused by air pollution. In 2013, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention launched a study on the impact of smog on public health, but the results won't be ready until later this year.

Interestingly last year former health minister Chen Zhu and three other authors estimated in The Lancet medical journal that air pollution caused 350,000 to 500,000 premature deaths per year.

But an earlier study in the same journal said air pollution accounted for 1.2 million premature deaths in 2010 alone.

So what are the real numbers? Perhaps China is too scared to find out... or more importantly be blamed for these deaths...

Cancer Scare

Air pollution, but also unhealthy lifestyles are to blame for rising cancer rates

It is shocking to read in the news today that cancer is claiming 18 percent more lives in Hong Kong than a decade ago. This means the number of cancer patients has grown 27 percent in the last 10 years, an annual rate of 2.5 percent, according to Department of Health and Hospital Authority data.

The five most commonly diagnosed cancers, which account for 60 percent of all new cases are: lung, colorectal, breast, liver and prostate.

Today is World Cancer Day with the tagline "Not Beyond Us", in the hopes of spreading an optimistic message that if people change their lifestyles into more healthier ones, they will have a higher chance of preventing a cancer diagnosis.

However no matter how many times doctors and health experts preach to the public about the importance of eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and getting health check ups, not many seem to take heed.

There are still many people, particularly women, who would rather drink a potion than exercise for 20 minutes, or they constantly cite the excuse of not having enough time to hit the gym.

We wonder if these alarming statistics will encourage people, particularly those who have seen cancer cases in their own family histories, to actually try to change their situation.

The incidence of cancer in Hong Kong is rising at a faster pace, with a new record of 27,848 cases in 2012 -- an increase of 27 percent -- compared to 2002, according to the Hospital Authority's Hong Kong Cancer Registry update last November.

Most of the increases are in female patients, who are contracting cancers in lung, uterus and breast.

Lung cancer has overtaken colorectal cancer in top spot this year, and Dr Daniel Chua Tsin-tien, associate director at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital's department of radiotherapy, says breast and colorectal cancer will continue to have high rates in Hong Kong because of people smoking and eating more red meat.

Will the government consider raising taxes for cigarettes, but more importantly begin clamping down severely on those polluting the air we breathe? Surely the government does not want to have a a health care breakdown because of the ever growing cancer cases that in all honesty impact the city's productivity?

It's long overdue for the government to be more pro-active about preventative healthcare. Surely healthy taxpayers than those draining resources would be in the government's best interests?

China's Terrorist Threat -- Smog

Visibility in Harbin dropped below three metres making surveillance difficult

It's sad but also amusing to hear the pollution is so bad in China that it has made surveillance very difficult, raising fears of not being able to detect terrorist attacks.

Beijing has invested so much in its nationwide surveillance network that the police can see what's going on in every major street of large cities.

But since smog has enveloped many places, such as Harbin last month where visibility dropped to below three metres, it makes it more difficult for surveillance.

"According to our experience, as the visibility drops below three metres, even the best camera cannot see beyond a dozen metres," said Kong Zilong, a senior project engineer with Shenzhen Yichengan Technology, and expert in video surveillance technology.

The central government realizes this is a serious issue and has commissioned scientists to come up with a solution. The National Natural Science Foundation of China has funded two teams, one civilian, the other military to study the issue and find solutions within four years.

Professor Yang Aiping is an expert in digital imaging with the School of Electronic Information Engineering at Tianjin University and leader of the civilian team.

"Most studies in other countries are to do with fog," she says. "In China, most people think that fog and smog can be dealt by the same method. Our preliminary research shows that the smog particles are quite different from the small water droplets of fog in terms of optical properties," she said.

"We need to heavily revise, if not completely rewrite alogrithms in some mathematical models. We also need to do lots of computer simulation and extensive field tests."

Meanwhile professor Zhang Li, an image processing expert with the department of electronic engineering at Tsinghua University, said researchers may have to be more creative, suggesting microwaves of electromagnetic waves could travel through smog and bounce back if it hit objects, but then it would generate radiation that could be bad for human health.

What we can't understand is -- why can't the country seriously start cutting back on air pollution? It has started to cut down on the number of coal-fired plants, but there are too many cars on the roads. Although lower-end factories are closing in the south and the rest are moving westward for cheaper labour, heavy industry such as making steel is still going strong.

China prided itself on being able to manipulate the weather before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the capital had the best weather (and hardly any traffic) during that period.

Many Beijing residents hoped the arrangement of odd and even license plate number cars on the roads would continue, but alas the dream was not possible as the restrictions were too extreme.

Nevertheless we find it interesting that China is worried that terrorists may choose the smoggiest days to launch attacks in the country. But even they would have trouble seeking their targets too, no?