Nĭhăo Beijing

I attended a conference at Beijing this week. It's not something I usually do, but I'd been lucky enough to be invited to give lectures there.

My last visit to the capital city of China was 28 years ago (if I didn't count another short conference trip of mine 8 years back). How times have changed. The toughest antismoking legislation in 2015 has been impressive enough to give us essentially smoke-free environment, I must say. The smog isn't diminishing, though.

"Be forewarned. Air quality can be a problem," so says Lonely Planet. On the day after arrival, I was cautioned by the hotel concierge that I'd better run at indoor gym. That said, I tried to bring my camera and walk my shoes off around my hotel, without wearing a smog mask. That's fine as long as I don't take picture of the (relentlessly gloomy) sky.

Still, most of my photos turned out to have a tinge of yellow tone. When I first saw the pictures on my camera screen, I rolled my eyes. On second thought, I realized it made perfect sense. My camera, I suspected, is smart enough to pick up all the PM10 and PM2.5 particles, even without checking the National Meteorological Center's blue alert for Beijing's sandstorm. Jiùmìng!