euk

Just saw an item on CCTV æ–°é—» about Wuxi’s blue-green algal bloom-caused water crisis. The pictures of the contents of Tai Hu were horrific. I saw “contents” because there’s no way you could reasonably call that muck “lake water”. Down in Changsha we used to joke about the Xiang River being a “solution of water dissolved in pollutants”. Well, that was what I just saw on TV. Water dissolved in pollutants. Hell, it even managed to make the lakes in Taiyuan’s Yingze Park look clean by comparison- and I remember one day in Yingze Park in early December, 2000, having to throw a rock on the lack because neither the friend I was with nor I could tell if it was frozen or not. The rock bounced, so we assumed it was frozen. I’m not sure what would have happened had the lake not been frozen. Anyway, the section of Tai Hu that supplies Wuxi with tap water is in a state so thoroughly revolting that I can’t understand how it got that way without somebody noticing several months ago that the water quality was looking kinda dodgy.

2 Comments on euknews

About the Author

wangbo

wangbo

A Kiwi teaching English to oil workers in Beijing, studying Chinese in my spare time, married to a beautiful Beijing lass, consuming vast quantities of green tea (usually Xihu Longjing/西湖龙井, if that means anything to you), eating good food (except for when I cook), missing good Kiwi ale, breathing smog, generally living as best I can outside Godzone and having a good time of it.

2 thoughts on “euk”

  1. “I’m not sure what would have happened had the lake not been frozen.”

    I’m guessing the rock would’ve dissolved; or have been thrown back by the mutant life forms in the lake. (“He threw the rock at me first, so I’m just throwing it back.”)

    I saw the picture over on Danwei yesterday. That was the lake that was near-ish to Benniu. The school, for reasons we didn’t understand at the time, didn’t want us venturing there by ourselves. I think the answer might’ve be Chinese Slime Demons.

    Probably it’s been so long since anyone has seen any real, live water not in a plastic bottle that no one realised that lakes aren’t meant to look like that. Also, people in southern Jiangsu Province seem a little dim in my experience.

  2. “real, live water”? I think that “live” bit is exactly the problem here- there’s just a little, teensy, tiny bit too much life in the lake, in the form of blue-green algae.

    Well, my karma isn’t quite as bad as yours, but I’m certainly glad my time in southern Jiangsu was limited to those few drinking sessions interrupted by a little bit of “professional development” in Changzhou.

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