Beijing is seeing some remarkably clear skies these days. It’s up to your Beijingologist, David Feng, to guess just why the sky’s clearing up…
• That Big, Bad Wind: One of those things I think we can all take for granted in the typical Beijing winter are those ghastly mid-winter variants of typhoons with Beijing characteristics. Suffice it to say that you’ll have quite a bit of wind (around Beaufort 5 if things don’t work out well with Petrus, the “weather god”, above), but that’ll most likely happen around the end of days of grey skies or fog/smog/_fill in the blank here_.
The wind can get harmless in winter (well, not actually; it actually feels really bad and sends the thermometer into minus territory), but come spring, the wind can have another unwanted effect: blowing sand. Back in 2002, the whole thing got so out of hand that we were used to seeing orange skies. Things are a tad better these days, but the sand’s still there until… maybe, in a few years, I hope.
• The New National Standard IV Emissions: Beginning 2008, the new National Standard IV Emissions apply, which halve emissions based on Standard III. As a result, N III cars have had to leave the Beijing car market. The new N IV standards, though, are good news for the environment; you’ll get to breathe better air. Not way better, though; you’ll still have to contend with a thousand new cars on the roads every single day!
• The Mozart Line: Finally, here’s what’s taking the thousand-plus cars off the road: that miracle under construction known as Beijing Subway City. By the year 2015, 561 km of the Beijing Subway will be reality; by 2050, the figure looks more a la 1,053 km. When Line 5, known to your Beijingologist as the Mozart Line, opened last year, it made a world of difference to Tiantongyuan; this is how locals get to central Beijing, day in, day out. More and more lines are planned for 2008: Lines 8 (Stage 1), 10 (Stage 1) and the Airport Express will get more and more of us on the rails — not the roads.
