bezdomny ex patria

It’s not just heat that’s been on the way up recently, but water use, too. According to 北京晚报/Beijing Evening News, Beijing has set a new record for water supplied to the city. Twice. Well, a record for “so far this year”, followed by a “most ever”. But first, a clarification: This article is dated July 6, so where it says “yesterday”, it means July 5. It only showed up in my Kaixin001 feed this morning. Anyway, here’s the record setting:

市自来水集团介绍，在7月4日城区日供水量达268万立方米创出今年新高后，昨天市区日供水量达286万立方米，超过去年夏季278万立方米的历史最高日 供水量，也创出北京百年供水史上最高水平，已接近市区的日供水能力。统计数据显示，昨天高时供水量出现在9时到10时，1小时供水量达16.48万立方 米。

The municipal water supply group said that after the amount of water supplied to the urban area reached 2.68 million cubic metres on July 4, setting a new record for this year, yesterday the amount of water supplied to the city area reached 2.86 million cubic metres, breaking the historic record set last summer of 2.78 million cubic metres of water supplied in one day, setting the record for the largest amount supplied in Beijing’s 100-year history of mains water supply, approaching the maximum amount that can be supplied to the city. Statistics show that yesterday’s peak water use was betwen 9 and 10, with 164,800 cubic metres supplied in one hour.

[Yes, as always, I have played it a bit fast and loose with aspects of the translation. Corrections and improvements are welcome]

Apparently demand for water is so high that the water supply group is considering limiting water supply to certain industries for the duration.

Now, I’ve said it a million times before, and I’ll probably repeat it several million more times, but one of the things that worries me most about Beijing’s future is water:

北京连续十年干旱，虽然今年降水多于往年，但是密云水库的蓄水量反而低于往年。今天上午，密云水库的蓄水量为9.4亿立方米，比去年同期减少2.4亿立方 米。此前不久，来自河北三座水库的2亿立方米水，经过南水北调京石段工程持续进入北京。河北水抵达北京团城湖后，经过管道进入市自来水厂，加工过滤后进入 千家万户。市自来水集团称：“目前北京自来水管网中三分之一的水是河北用水。管道中的每一滴自来水都非常珍贵，希望市民要珍惜使用。”

After Beijing’s 10 years of continuous drought, although precipitation has been higher this year, the amount of water stored in the Miyun Reservoir is actually lower than in previous years. This morning, Miyun Reservoir held 940 million cubic metres of water, 240 million cubic metres less than at the same time last year. Not long ago, 200 million cubic metres of water from three reservoirs in Hebei entered Beijing via the Beijing-Shijiazhuang section of the South-North Water Diversion Project. After Hebei water reaches Beijing’s Tuancheng Hu, it is piped into a municipal water treatment plant, and then after treatment and filtering enters the city’s households. The municipal water supply group said, “Currently a third of the water in the city’s pipe network is from Hebei. Every drop of water in the pipes is very precious. We hope the citizens will cherish it.”

I certainly do not like the look of those numbers.

Anyways, that’s enough breakfast-time blogging and dodgy as hell translation. I do still have exam papers awaiting grades.

Just came across an interesting article on Newenergy.org.cn: Apparently Inner Mongolia’s wind power industry is taking off, with installed capacity already No. 1 in China. Wang Yutian and Bai Bing report:

随着大批风电项目和风机设备制造厂落户内蒙古，当地风电产业迅猛发展。目前内蒙古全区并网风电装机容量３００万千瓦，累计完成投资近４００亿元，占全国风电装机总容量的四分之一，跃居全国首位。

Following the setlling of a large group of windpower projects and turbine equipment factories in Inner Mongolia, that region’s windpower industry has been rapidly developing. Inner Mongolia currently has an installed grid-connected windpower capacity of 3 million megawatts through the whole region, with a total completed investment approaching 40 billion yuan, accounting for one quarter of China’s installed windpower capacity, leaping into first place in China.

据内蒙古自治区发改委高技术产业处处长孟青龙介绍，近几年内蒙古风电产业发展速度加快，２００７年、２００８年内蒙古完成风电吊装容量较上一年分别增长１７５％和１４２％，产业规模快速形成。预计内蒙古风电装机容量今年年底将达到５００万千瓦。

According to the head of the High Technology Office of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission, Meng Qinglong, in recent years Inner Mongolia’s windpower industry has developed more rapidly. In 2007 and 2008 Inner Mongolia’s completed windpower hoisted capacity grew by 175% and 142% over the previous year, quickly forming the scale of the industry. It is predicted Inner Mongolia’s installed windpower capacity will reach 5 million megawatts by the end of the year.

And here I will admit defeat. I just cannot figure out this sentence: “与此同时，风电产业呈规模化发展趋势。”, and besides, the rest of that paragraph is just a city-by-city breakdown of windpower capacity, installed and under construction. Chifeng leads the way with a million megawatts installed already, and a bunch of other cities including Baotou and Tongliao in the 350 to 800 thousand megawatt range. And what’s under construction takes the total up to 5.9 million megawatts.

The final paragraph begins by stating that Inner Mongolia’s level of operational management of windpower has been unceasingly growing, but I can’t see how they prove it. Not that I doubt that statement, I just don’t see the relevance of the supporting sentences. Maybe that’s because I’m an English teacher, not an electrical engineer. Whatever, it does say that at the end of April, Inner Mongolia had 3.5 million megawatts of windpower connected to the grid, of which 2.24 million megawatts is fed into the Inner Mongolian grid (7.3% of the capacity tracked by the regional grid), 1.1 million megawatts into Northeast China, and 160 thousand megawatts into the Northwest.

Puff piece? Advertorial? Smells like it, but I don’t know. I don’t really think it matters, either. What matters is the rapid development of windpower in Inner Mongolia, and if there’s any truth to the reported numbers, what’s happening out there is looking very good.

Got an old car in Beijing? You could claim a subsidy for scrapping it and buying a new one, according to this report in 新京报/The Beijing News. Wei Xuezhen reports:

北京启动汽车“以旧换新”

Beijing starts “replacing old cars with new”

24日起将正式受理车主申请，将与黄标车政策同时执行

Applications formally accepted from the 24, to be carried out simultaneously with the “yellow sticker” vehicle elimination policy.

北京市财政局、商务委员会和环保局昨日联合宣布，汽车以旧换新正式启动，从本月24日起将正式受理车主申请。北京环保局有关负责人表示，以旧换新与黄标车淘汰更新补贴政策同时进行，此前的差额部分将进行补贴。

The Beijing municipal Finance Bureau, Commerce Committee, and Environmental Protection Bureau together announced yesterday that the replacing of old cars with new will formally begin, that from the 24 of this month applications from car owners will be formally accepted. The person responsible at the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said that the replacing of old with new and the policy to eliminate and update yellow sticker vehicles would be carried out at the same time, and that previous differences would be subsidised.

Alright, I have no idea what “此前的差额部分将进行补贴” is on about. I would assume that there is some inequity in the two policies and that the authorities might be worried about people who’ve already scrapped their yellow sticker vehicles might be a bit put out to see people claiming these new subsidies getting more money than them. My assumption would seem justified, but:

补差额让车主“不吃亏”

Making up the difference so car owners “don’t lose out”.

按照规定，在2010年5月31日之前，报废使用不到8年的老旧微型载货车、老旧中型出租载客车，使用不到12年的老旧中、轻型载货车、出租车以外的老旧 中型载客车以及提前报废“黄标车”，并换购新车的，根据报废车型可享受3000-6000元不等的补贴。北京市环保局表示，由于今年年初，北京市率先实施 了鼓励黄标车淘汰政策措施，因此目前两项政策将同时进行。

According to the regulations, car owners who scrap and replace before 31 May 2010 old mini commercial vehicles and old minibuses used for up to 8 years, medium and light commercial vehicles and mid-sized passenger vehicles other than taxis used for up to 12 years as well as owners of “yellow sticker vehicles” already scrapped, and who then buy new vehicles can according to the type of vehicle scrapped enjoy subsidies varying from 3000 to 6000 yuan.  The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said that because Beijing took the lead in implementing measures to encourage the scrapping of “yellow sticker vehicles” at the beginning of the year, these two policies would be carried out simultaneously.

北京市环保局副局长杜少中昨日表示，由于黄标车淘汰补助水平总体高于以旧换新的政策，之前淘汰的少数车型补助低于以旧换新补贴，将补齐两项政策的差额，以保证车主“不吃亏”。根据规定，黄标车根据车型最高补助25000元。

Yesterday assistant head of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau Du Shaozhong said that because the overall level of the subsidies to eliminate yellow sticker vehicles was higher than that of the policy to replace old cars with new, and a small number of subsidies for vehicle types eliminated was lower than the subsidies to replace old vehicles with new, differences between the two policies would be patched up so that car owners would not lose out. According to the regulations, yellow sticker vehicles could be subsidised up to 25000 yuan depending on vehicle type.

Two things:

1. I wound up relying on Baidu’s image search to figure out what the different types of vehicles mentioned are exactly, and I couldn’t see a difference between “中型出租载客车” and “出租车以外的老旧 中型载客车”. They all look like minibuses to me.
2. It would seem, but I’m not sure, that some of those who have already scrapped yellow sticker vehicles got 25000 yuan in subsidies, while others got less than the 3000 yuan minimum subsidy under the new policy. I have no idea what the authorities are actually going to do about the differences in subsidies under the two policies, but I would be surprised if the government tried to claim back the difference from those who got more than 6000 yuan under the old policy, and I assume that those who got less under the old policy than the would have under the new one will be given a top-up. Or maybe I’m being too optimistic, I don’t know.

The rest of the article is about how to go about claiming the subsidies. I’m going to assume that those eligible for the subsidies read about them in the original Chinese-language reports and would not be reading anything on this blog (I may be wrong, but the types of vehicle mentioned….). It also says the Environmental Protection Bureau hopes to get an extra 20 or 30 thousand dirty cars off the streets.

So it’s been a while since I translated anything for this blog. 新京报/The Beijing News has a good reason to start translating again on their newly, nicely redesigned site: Beijing is going to subsidise geothermal heating:

利用地热供暖政府将给补助

Government to subsidise use of geothermal energy for heating

Ugh… That was an ugly mangling of the headline. Nevermind…

北京地下热能每年可供暖近10亿平米，达2020年规划目标

Beijing’s underground thermal energy could heat up to 1 billion square metres, reaching 2020′s planned target.

And it just gets uglier…. I’m way out of practice, aren’t I?

Anyways, Jiang Yanxin reports:

采用地温能供暖的小区，政府将对开发商提供30元到50元/平米的补助。昨日，北京市地勘局发布的报告显示，北京平原区地下蕴含的浅层地温能，每年可供暖9.59亿平米，潜力巨大。据悉，这种大区域性资源评价在国内外均属首次。

The government will provide subsidies of 30 to 50 yuan per square metre to developers in communities that adopt geothermal heating. A report released yesterday by the Beijing Municipal Geological Prospecting Bureau revealed that the heat energy contained in the shallow strata beneath Beijing’s plain area could supply heat to 959 million square metres, a huge potential. It is reported that this kind of large-scale resource appraisal is a world first.

热能达2020年供热目标

Thermal energy reaches 2020′s heating target.

昨日，市地勘局发布了历时3年完成的《北京平原区浅层地温能资源地质勘察报告》。

Yesterday the municipal Geological Prospecting Bureau released its report Geological Prospecting Report on Shallow Strata Thermal Energy Resources in Beijing’s Plains Area, completed over three years.

报告显示，北京平原区3米-150米浅层地温能每年折合标准煤0.662亿吨；冬季可利用资源量折合标准煤0.153亿吨，可供暖面积9.59亿平方米。十分接近于北京市总体规划目标，即到2020年北京市供暖总面积达到10亿平方米。

The report revealed that the thermal energy contained in the shallow strata from 3 metres to 150 metres below Beijing’s plains area amounts to 66.2 million tons of standard coal per year. In winter the equivalent of 15.3 million tons of standard coal could be used, supplying heat to an area of 959 million square metres.  This comes very close to the goal of Beijing Municipality’s overall plan to supply heat to a total area of 1 billion square metres by 2020.

Alright, I’m going to omit a definition that, even if it were rendered into good English by a competent translator (i.e. not me), would still give me a migraine. But to make it worse, puzzling out that long, complicated sentence makes it seem like the definition is so blindingly obvious it would only be necessary in a text for primary school kids. And besides, the word ‘troposphere‘ makes me think of a large ball whose inhabitants are all a bit nutty (hey, wait, that’s a pretty good description of Earth), and yet I can’t figure out why the lowest portion of the Earth’s atmosphere would be mentioned in a definition of the geothermal resources in question- last I checked, all of the Earth’s crust sits below the all of its atmosphere, except when things like volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes send small parts of it flying.

Anyway, continuing:

市地勘局有关负责人表示，使用浅层地温能，比普通的燃气要便宜10元左右，由于可循环利用，在环保的同时还节能。

The person responsible at the municipal Geological Prospecting Bureau said that using shallow strata geothermal energy is about 10 yuan cheaper than using regular gas as it is renewable, making it both environmentally friendly and energy saving.

Alright, skipping over a restatement of the 30 to 50 yuan/m2 subsidies offered to developers to encourage them to use geothermal heating, and actually, just picking the one or two interesting bits left in the article:

目前北京已有1300万平米建筑利用浅层地热能供暖、制冷。

Currently Beijing has 13 million square metres of construction using shallow strata geothermal heating and cooling.

Yeah, cooling too. I have only the vaguest idea of the physics, but I have heard before that in the summer you can throw the whole thing in reverse and pump the heat back underground.

此外，考虑到资源开采可能对环境带来的影响，市地勘局已建立2个监测站、20多个采集点，对开采带来的影响进行监测。一旦地热大规模利用，北京将考虑建立20多个监测站、1000多个采集点进行监测，确保安全开采。

In addition, considering the possible influences of resource exploitation on the environment, the municipal Geological Prospecting Bureau has already built two monitoring stations and over 20 collecting points to monitor the influence of exploitation. Once geothermal energy is used on a large scale, Beijing will consider establishing 20 monitoring stations and over 1000 collecting points to carry out monitoring and ensure safe exploitation.

Alright, so I’m building up a good track record of thoroughly mangled translations here…. Anyway, it’s cool to see that Beijing has such awesome potential for geothermal heating of the city’s buildings, that the government is encouraging it’s use, and that the relevant authorities will monitor the effects of its use on the environment. Cleaner heating can only be a good thing.

It started with the exhausted struggle to both wake up and sleep in that has become normal this end of semester, but fortunately Thursday is my easy day: 10 o’clock start and only one class. Usual Thursday morning routine: Look out the window and see the same humid murk that’s been smothering us since that big midday storm on Tuesday. Fire up the computer, put the kettle on, do a little surfing while I slowly recaffeinate, generally take a relaxed, civilised start to the day.

Eventually it was time to head off to the office, hoping to see the boss and talk over a couple of things before class. On the way, I saw a couple of cool posters, the first posted at the little gate of our estate:

Cool, huh? It’s not just posters, though. Our building will be getting a much-needed fresh coat of paint on both the outside walls and in the stairwells for the 60th anniversary of the PRC.

And then, after I’d crossed the bridge, just inside the West Gate of the campus:

Power saving… and am I right to read part of those posters as saying “save power to reduce emissions”? In any case, a good thing to be seeing.

And then, well…. Didn’t get to see the boss, but he’s often busy, so I’ll just have to wait. Got to class and that was all good. Then ran off to the gate to meet a possible new teacher, showed him around, took him to lunch with another colleague, showed him a classroom and let him sit in on my colleague’s class. That was all good, but as that was happening, the air seemed to grow ever thicker and tastier and more and more nutritious. Well, in the run-up to the afternoon’s classes I showed this possible new teacher where the nearest Starbucks was- it would normally be easily visible from the building we were in, but it was a struggle to make out the gate he’d have to leave the campus through, and that was only a couple of hundred metres away. And I showed him the toilets, just in case… I mean, we had just had lunch. Chatted with the students for a few minutes- my former students, it’s fun to catch up with them between classes now that I no longer teach them. Then as the bell rang I ducked out and headed home, promising to meet this possible new teacher back in the office at 4, when we’d hopefully manage to see the boss.

Well, by this time the air outside has a distinct smell of smoke to it and visibility is at the point where I’m really glad I’m not flying anywhere. I mean, a few years back I flew into Hong Kong on a day as grey and murky, and that was one of the scariest flights I’ve ever had. The flight was perfectly smooth, nothing even remotely bumpy, but my ears were telling me we were descending and, sitting in my window seat staring out at the scenery, all I could see was thick grey, until suddenly spots started appearing in the grey. As we descended, I realised these spots in the grey were boats. All I could do is sit there watching these boats get ever closer hoping the pilots could see more than I could.

You know it’s ridiculously humid when you put a cold bottle of beer on the desk and a puddle forms at its base- and no, the bottle was not leaking. Yeah, it’s been the kind of day when the only valid option is to put yourself somewhere where you won’t be arrested (like the privacy of your own home, for example) and strip down to as little as possible. And perhaps consider investing in gas masks.

So I trundled back over to the office, moving as slowly as possible to avoid sucking any more of that murk into my lungs than absolutely necessary, met this new guy, and we sat and chatted and waited. The boss was all tied up in meetings, so we arranged to meet again Monday morning- just one of those things, circumstances that can’t be avoided. So I walked him out to the gate and put him in a taxi to Dawang Lu subway station. As we walked, a few hesitant raindrops tried their luck falling to the ground. A few more saw their success and followed. Then nothing. I grabbed up my empties and took them to the store to recycle, wading through the murk praying for rain followed by a nice, dry norwester.

I got home and fired up the computer, removed all unnecessary clothing, turned the fan on, and suddenly the roar of heavy rain hit. I looked out the window, disbelieving my ears. Nope, it’s true. Oh wait, better run and close the windows on the southern side of the apartment before our phone gets drowned yet again and the obviously filthy rain drops unclean the laundry trying to dry on the balcony. But after about a minute, the rain retreats to a gentle shower, then stops. Bugger.

lzh got home and it turns out her story was similar to mine. She’d caught the bus home, like I told her, not wanting her to suck in all that muck cycling home when the API, according to so many people on Twitter, had hit 500. The rain hit when her bus reached Bawangfen, and stopped not long before she got to our stop. Beautifully timed.

Then we headed for what is rapidly becoming our favouritest restaurant in all the world. 28 kuai for a malaxiangguo (is there an English term for 麻辣香锅 other than the “dry hotpot” my colleague uses?) and you can choose three veges and one meat to throw in, and I can get all the barbequed stuff on sticks I could desire. Mmmm…. garlic on a stick…. mmmm…. chopped up chicken hearts on a stick….. As we left, the air was still heavy, thick, humid, sticky and unfortunately tasty. On our way back a few more tentative rain drops started to fall. Then they stopped again. And as I sit here writing this nonsense, I can hear the music of heavy, fast rain beating down. That’s probably the most beautiful music in the world. I’m hoping this music continues through the night, and that sometime in the wee small hours a norwester blows up to drive this humidity away again and let us breathe easily one more day.

What is it with film crews and their inability to clean up after themselves? The crew of the new Romance of the Three Kingdoms has left a hell of a mess at the reservoir where they were filming at the Yangxi Reservoir in Zhejiang, according to this Xinhua report in today’s 新京报/The Beijing News. And no, it’s not just a case of making a mess, but also of endangering the drinking water supply for the nearly 300 thousand local residents. The reservoir management refused the request to film there several times, fearing for the safety of the reservoir, but the crew were insistent, and eventually they reached an agreement:

“但是剧组再三要求，考虑到剧组影响力较大，对永康和库区能起到宣传作用，就勉强答应了。”黄兴法告诉记者，为了确保水资源的安全，双方还签署了协议，协议中说明剧组从搭建场地时起每天支付租金300元，还要交2万元押金，一旦影响环境就要扣押金。

“But the film crew demanded again and again, and thinking that they had quite some power to influence, that they could put Yongkang and the reservoir area on the map, we reluctantly agreed.” Huang Xingfa [director of the reservoir management bureau] told this reporter that to guarantee the safety of the water resource, both parties signed an agreement saying that from the time the crew started setting up its location it would pay only 300 yuan per day as rent, but would also pay 20 thousand yuan deposit which would be kept if there were any effect on the environment.

Alright, sounds fair enough, but then:

记者了解到，在拍摄期间，杨溪水库周围除了堆积如山的塑料饭盒、酒瓶甚至粪便等生活垃圾外，由于拍摄交战的 夜戏，现场还弥漫着浓重的柴油味，水中也有小部分黑色漂浮物。幸好没有下雨，大部分油污还没有进入杨溪水库。而在此之前，保护杨溪水库的水源不受污染一直 是当地村民引以为傲的职责。“村里投资20多万元建起生活污水净化沼气工程，每家每户都做到了生活污水达标排放。”黄兴法说。

This reporter learnt that during filming, as well as the domestic waste like plastic food boxes, wine bottles and even excrement and urine, that piled up like mountains, because they were filming night battle scenes, a heavy smell of diesel pervades the scene around the Yangxi Reservoir, and there’s a small amount of black stuff floating in the water. Fortunately it hasn’t rained, and most of the oil pollution hasn’t entered the Yangxi Reservoir, and before this, the Yangxi Reservoir has not been polluted because the local villagers see protecting the water resources as their proud duty. “Over 200 thousand yuan was invested in building a domestic sewage treatment and methane project, and every household has reached the domestic sewage emission standard,” said Huang Xingfa.

对于剧组的违约行为，水库管理局决定没收押金，要求剧组立即清理垃圾并再次缴纳2万元押金，一旦再次违约，将用这笔钱来彻底清理垃圾；另外，管理局还督促剧组加快拍摄进度，最晚在本月19日之前清理现场并撤离。

As for the film crew’s breach of its promise, the reservoir management bureau has decided to seize the deposit, and demands that the crew immediately clean up their rubbish and pay another 20 thousand yuan deposit in case it of another breach of the agreement, and will use this money to thoroughly clean up the rubbish. Also, the management bureau will supervise the crew’s faster filming schedule and wants them to clean up the scene and leave by the 19th at the latest.

黄兴法还说，今后杨溪水库将不再接受任何影视剧组在此拍摄。

Huang Xingfa also said that from now on the Yangxi Reservoir will not accept any more film crews filming here.

Notes:

1. I don’t get the “水库管理局决定没收押金”, it seems all backwards to me. Does it mean they won’t return the deposit to the film crew? Or are they insisting they never received the deposit? Or are they magnanimously not keeping the deposit so long as the crew cleans up? Or what? Fixed, thanks Duncan.
2. There’s no indication the reporter, 段菁菁/Duan Jingjing, sought the film crew’s version of events.
   
3. See? You just went and screwed it up for everyone! Now nobody gets to use the beautiful reservoir with its lack of modern structures.
4. And I would’ve thought that Chen Kaige’s little episode down in Yunnan would’ve taught everybody a lesson. This kind of nonsense is no longer considered acceptable behaviour.

You’ll have to forgive the long periods of silence. Work has been busy, busy to the point of eating into my weekends, even.

Anyway, sifting through the 新京报/The Beijing News’ Beijing news this morning I came across two interesting little tidbits. One piece of good news with potentially bad news appended and one curious little item involving changing the colour of Beijing’s rooves. I’ll start with the good news, but only in summary:

Beijing’s municipal government, in accordance with the spirit of the notice from the central government, they say, has set this year’s Qingming holiday for Saturday 4 April to Monday 6 April. 4 April is the day of Qingming itself.

The potentially bad news appended is that Beijing’s six month trial of traffic restrictions is set to end on April 10, and so far there’s been no word as to whether the traffic restrictions will continue.

Rooves changing colour? That one’s a curious piece:

屋顶绿化将成城市新景观

Roof greening to become city sight

屋顶绿化要从环保项目转变为城市新景观，让市民看得见摸得着。昨天下午，记者从2008年北京屋顶绿化总结表彰大会上获悉，屋顶绿化将如同地面绿化一样，纳入新建建筑设计范畴。

Roof greening will be transformed from an environmental protection project into a new sight of the city citizens will be able to see and touch. This reporter learned at yesterday afternoon’s meeting to summarise and commend Beijing’s 2008 roof greening that roof greening will become the same as the greening of the land and be incorparted as a category of the design of new construction.

“屋顶绿化最早是作为环保项目出现的，不属于城市景观。”北京市园林绿化局绿地管理处处长杨志华介绍目前北京屋顶绿化面积达到100多万平米。

“Roof greening first emerged as an environmental protection project and did not belong to the city’s scenery.” Head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry [Seems they can't decide on one single English name] Division of Green Land Management Yang Zhihua said that currently Beijing’s area of greened roof has reached over 1 million square metres.

杨志华说，目前屋顶绿化还以简单草坪为主，有花有草有树的花园式比较少，原因是楼盖完后才考虑屋顶绿化，已建成楼的承重问题、防水问题、安全问题都是制约因素。

Yang Zhihua said that currently roof greening is still mainly simple lawns, and gardens with flowers, grass and trees are relatively rare. The reason is that roof greening is considered after the roof has been put on the building, the ability of already-constructed buildings to carry weight, water-proofing and safety are all restricting factors.

北京市园林绿化局副局长强健认为，下一步将协调相关部门，逐步将屋顶绿化纳入新建建筑设计范畴。

The assistant head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry strongly believes that the next step will be to coordinate with related departments to progressively incorporate roof greening as a category of the design of new construction.

Hmm….. perhaps I should not attempt to translate anything before breakfast….

I have to say I like the idea of rooftop gardens. There’s something fundamentally cool about putting a garden on the roof of a building. And if they do start designing buildings so they can put gardens including trees on rooftops, even cooler.

It’s a little concerning, this piece in the 新京报/The Beijing News. A lake in Xinjiang has shrunk to a third its former size.

But first a quick note: Because it’s Xinjiang, there’s going to be a little hassle with names, because we’d normally use some form of the Uighur/other local language name (Mongolian seems to be popular in this particular article) in English, and the Chinese names don’t necessarily translate back into a form likely to be seen on an English-language map. I’ll do my best, but there’s no guarantee I’ll get the names right….

新疆艾比湖50年萎缩2/3

Xinjiang’s Aibi Lake shrinks by 2/3 in 50 years

新疆艾比湖

Aibi Lake, Xinjiang

新疆艾比湖50年来剧烈萎缩，面积已不足丰水期的三分之一，出现了大面积的湖底裸露，成为环境“杀手”。

Xinjiang’s Aibi Lake has severely shrunk over 50 years, with the surface area already not reaching one third of that of its most abundant time. A large area of lakebed has been exposed, becoming an environmental “killer”.

艾比湖位于准噶尔盆地的西北缘，有博尔塔拉河、精河、奎屯河、四棵树河和拉巴河汇入。艾比湖水面面积最大时达 1200多平方千米，年入湖水量达12亿立方米，由于上游地区开荒截流，目前入湖河流只有博尔塔拉河和精河两条，其他三条河在未进湖前就断流了，年入湖水 量只有5亿立方米，湖面锐减到400平方米。

Aibi Lake lies on the northwestern edge of the Junggar Basin, and is fed by the Bortala River, Jing River, Kuitun River, Four Trees (Sìkēshù) River and Laba River. At its largest, the surface area of Aibi Lake reached1200 square kilometres, with an annual inflow of 1.2 billion cubic metres. Because in the upper reaches wasteland was reclaimed and the rivers dammed, currently only two rivers, the Bortala and the Jing, flow into the lake, while the other three rivers stop flowing before the enter the lake, the annual inflow is only 500 million cubic metres and the lake surface has shrunk to 400 square metres.

[Uh, surely there's a typo there? Shouldn't 400平方米 be 400 平方千米- 400 square kilometres? Otherwise it's one hell of a lot less than 1/3 of its greatest extent of 1200 square kilometres. Just for reference, 百度百科 has its area as 1070 square kilometres.]

艾比湖萎缩导致的地下水位下降，使这一流域周边地区盐渍化和荒漠化加快，成为继罗布泊干涸之后困扰新疆的第二大生态问题。干涸湖底的盐碱经过反复的冻结融化，变成粉末状，在大风的作用下形成盐尘暴。为缓解这一现状，当地政府曾试图向艾比湖输水，但收效甚微。

The shrinking of Aibi Lake has led to a lowering of the water table, speeding up salinization and desertification in the areas around the basin, becoming the second biggest ecological problem troubling Xinjiang after the drying up of Lop Nur. The drying of the saline lands of the lakebed undergoes a repeated freezing and thawing, becoming powdery, becoming a salt-sand storm in high winds. To alleviate the current situation, the local government has tried to bring water into Aibi Lake, but to little effect.

Not a good situation, obviously, but it seems to be entirely manmade. But would undamming those three rivers do any good?

No, they didn’t ban smoking. Instead, one village in Yanqing County has replaced it’s old wood, straw and coal stoves for cooking and heating with fancy new ones. It’s perhaps a little puffy, the article, despite the lack of smoke, but it reports that Mijiabu Village in Yanqing Township (the area in roughly the centre of the county, centred on the county town) has retired it’s dirty, smoky old stoves with “环保节能的生物质炊事炉。”- Environmentally friendly energy saving biomass cooking stoves. The article doesn’t enlighten me as to just how these new stoves produce heat from biomass without producing smoke, but maybe I’m missing something. But it does quote one villager happily saying that the new stoves are much faster, boiling a pot of water in only 10 minutes, and they’re environmentally friendly and hygienic.

Hygienic? Well, my mother in law still uses an old, cornstalk-fired stove for cooking, and cooking a meal can easily smoke out the kitchen and entrance hall. Usually when she’s cooking I have to seek refuge from the smoke in a room with the door tightly closed. And of course, there’s the coal stove used for heating, and we all know coal isn’t the cleanest-burning of fuels. So yes, hygienic. Replacing those old stoves is not just good for the environment, but good for public health, too.

It also lists a series of new energy projects the township is implementing:

…大型沼气、秸秆压块、吊炕、太阳能浴池、墙体保温…

…large-scale methane, straw briquettes, suspended kangs, solar-powered bath houses, wall insulation…

Actually, that reminds me, we saw a new solar-powered bath house up in our township over Spring Festival. It’s a single-storey concrete building divided into men’s and women’s halves with a huge rack of solar water heaters on the roof. An aunt caught a chill bathing there. It seems to run on a first in first served basis, so if the hot water starts to run out while you’re still bathing, you’d best get out quick.

I still don’t know what a suspended kang is, but they were mentioned in an article I translated last April.

But this smokefree village article does end with an interesting perspective:

从烧柴、烧煤到用上新能源，米家堡村今年60多岁的赵德海深有感触，几十年来，他亲眼目睹了农村炊事的三大变迁。过去，由于农村没有别的能源，主要依靠木 柴生火，大量树木遭到砍伐，许多青山变成了秃山，绿坡变成了荒地，烧柴产生的大量烟雾，使原来清新的空气受到了污染。渐渐的，人们不再砍树取柴，用上了节 煤炉，烟煤、蜂窝煤取而代之，虽然省事了，但依旧是煮饭满屋烟，熏黑四面墙，灰尘扫不完。如今，村民免费用上了秸秆“绿气”，方便快捷，乌烟瘴气的景象一 去不复返了。

From burning wood and coal to using new energy, 60-something Mijiabu villager Zhao Dehai is deeply moved. Over the decades, he has seen with his own eyes three great changes in rural cooking. In the past, because the countryside had no other energy resource, the mainly relied on burning wood. Many trees were cut down, and many green moountains became barren mountains, green slopes became wastelands. Burning wood produced a lot of smoke, polluting the originally pure air. Gradually people stopped felling trees for firewood and started using coal stoves, replacing wood with soft coal and coal briquettes. Although it was less trouble, cooking still filled the room with smoke, blackening the walls, and there was endless ash to sweep. Today villagers use free straw “green gas”, which is convenient and fast, and the foul sight has gone never to return.

Yeah, first time I went to Yanqing I was surprised by the obvious lack of natural old-growth forests on the mountainsides. Almost all the trees were young and short and obviously planted in an effort at reforesting the slopes. Guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, I mean, any forest within easy reach of a village is obviously a target for those in need of firewood.

Anyway, hopefully our township learns about these new stoves and starts installing them. Cooking over cornstalks is hard, dirty work.

I saw an article a few days ago in which somebody tried to pretend the drought would have no effect on sandstorms this season, and I remember immediately spluttering, “Bollocks!” How could the drought not have an effect? Well, of course it depends on the situation in the areas that so generously supply North China with an excess of windborne sand each Spring, so I suppose….

Well, then I came across this disconcerting article. It’s a bit repetitive, so I’m going to cut a hefty chunk of the first paragraph and maybe just paraphrase the rest before I get into the meat of it:

9400多亩植被受旱情影响  沙尘天气今春威胁北京

Over 9400 mu of vegetation affected by drought, sandstorms threaten Beijing this spring

Oh, just noticed an error in the headline. Later on the article says “9400多万亩”- over 94 million mu. Quite a difference.

Anyway, quickly paraphrasing the few important and unrepeated details in the first paragraph: This information comes from Luo Bin, vice chair of the State Forestry Administration‘s Sand Prevention and Control Office, and was presented at yesterday’s State Forestry Administration press conference. Now, the meat:

罗斌介绍，沙尘暴的发生，主要与大气环流时间、沙尘源状况和路径植被状况有关。对我国来讲，沙尘天气主要发生在每年3至5月。从目前情况看，我国阿拉善高 原以东的植被状况处于比较好的状态，但如果干旱范围扩大、干旱持续时间延长，将会对随后的返青造成影响，并直接影响到这些地区的植被发挥生态防护功能，对 沙尘天气的抑制作用也会有所减弱。

Luo Bin said that sandstorms normally occur in times of atmospheric circulation and are related to the conditions at the source of the sand and the condition of vegetation along their path. In China, sandstorms mainly occur from March to May each year. Looking at the current situation, the condition of vegetation to the east of China’s Alashan Plateau is in a relatively good state, but if the scope of the drought expands and it continues over a longer time, it could soon affect greening of vegetation and directly influence the ecological protective function of vegetation in these areas, weakening its controlling effect on sandy weather.

目前干旱主要影响到京津风沙风沙源治理工程范围的山西、河北、北京和天津，影响森林植被面积9400多万亩，其中包括工程新增林木植被4000多万亩、新增草 地治理1500多万亩。旱情特别会对2008年新造的286万亩林地成活和保存产生不利影响，预计补植补造任务会加大。如果旱情持续恶化，还将对这部分林 木植被发挥生态作用产生不利影响。

At present the drought mainly affects Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin within the scope of the Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Control Project, and has affected an area of forest and vegetation of over 94 million mu, including forest vegetation of over 40 million mu and managed pasture of 15 million mu newly added by the project. The survival and continued production of the 2.86 million mu of forest added in 2008 especially could be negatively affected by the drought, and it is expected there could be more replanting and reconstruction work. If the drought continues to deteriorate it could also negatively affect the ecological use and production of this forest vegetation.

So it’s the usual rough-as-guts translation. Corrections, as always, are welcome. But in the process of trying to find an official English name for the 防沙治沙办公室, I did find this potentially cool and useful website (although it does seem to have a bit much of a Gansu focus, and isn’t much use for those who don’t read Chinese).

And could I just state that I hate- I mean, really, really loathe- sandstorms?

Update: And I can’t say I’m surprised to see that the front page of Farmers’ Daily is almost entirely drought-relief, with articles of a more general, national scope and from widely-scattered provinces covering just about all of China’s arid and drought-prone areas (actually, that’s most of the country- both the entire northern half and the entire western half at the least). But faced with such a plethora of articles, I just don’t know where to begin.

So for those who haven’t yet noticed: Yes, I am starting to get really quite worried about this drought.