Y’know, it’s really hard trying to figure out which is my favourite wind in Beijing. They all have some pretty big disadvantages. This morning, judging by the smoke from the local central heating plants, the wind was coming from the northeast. The air was not good. Northeast, of course, is the Bohai Sea (humidity) and the industry of Tangshan and Qinhuangdao. By lunch time the air was getting thick enough a machete could’ve made hacking my way through a bit easier. I looked for the nearest central heating plant and just managed to make out the hazy form of coal smoke floating northwestwards. Great, a sou’easter. That means the humid muck from Baiyangdian and the Tianjin coastal swamps plus all the airborne shit from the factories of Tianjin, Langfang and perhaps Baoding. No wonder my lungs are complaining.
The norwester, on the other hand, is good at clearing the air out, but it’s so cold and dry. The norwester cuts you to the bone and scatters your dessicated flesh over the plain and down into the swamps, leaving nothing behind but a shitload of static electricity. Kinda like the Green Party, really: I like what it does for the environment, but the rest of it’s bollocks I could quite happily live without.
