Beijing Boyce

Like a mysterious fog slowly drifting in from the Grand Banks… like a heavy morning haze that like an unwanted guest forgets to leave for three days… like baby mice playing in cotton balls… I’m trying to find a way to describe Beijing’s record-breaking air pollution for this year, which hit 421 parts per million today. Perhaps a fellow patron describes the scene best: “It’s like watching a [figurative] skull and crossbones cross the sky.”

The past three days are by far 2007’s worst stretch, as measured by China’s government, which typically ranks Beijing last of the 84 cities it monitors. Check these before and after photos - the latter is for yesterday, 140 parts per million better than today. (Not surprisingly, China is far more liberal in defining pollution levels than the United States, Europe and Hong Kong.)

So, why am I writing about pollution on this blog? Because if you’re planning to hit a bar tonight, you better make sure your taxi driver has GPS.

(My guess is that the goal is to hit 888 parts per million because, well, 8 is a lucky number in China.)

Note: Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, we beat yesterday’s record - today it’s 500 parts per million, which is the maximum on the pollution chart.