If high numbers are good, then we passed! I saw this story from danwei, thought I would chime in. Wait, but I’m reading from other blogs that a high number is actually bad. hmmm…. That’s not too good, is it? The chart above comes from the State Environmental Protection Administration of China, so, a government organization. If you go here, you can make your own really cool charts - in English too!

Yesterday was the first day of “normalcy” on the roads here in Beijing. Unfortunately, “normal” conditions aren’t ideal. ;-) Traffic was so bad last evening - I was in traffic for a good half hour to go 1 kilometer. Yikes! Last night, someone told me that Beijing was going to implement a more permanent car ban switcheroo - even cars on even days, odd cars on odd days, starting January 1.

Today is the last day of the car ban. While on the road these past few days, I have made the observation that most people followed the rule - at least from what I could see. I think I only saw 1 or 2 “offenders” - those driving when they weren’t supposed to - i.e. if it was an even day but their license plate ended in an odd number. Continuing with my daily “pollution check”, I bring you this morning’s photo, again, from my apartment.

This is a public toilet in Ritan park, Beijing. It is comforting to note they are rating toilets like hotels. I wonder what a 5 star toilet looks like…

I took another photo outside my apartment window today around 2pm. O.K., fine. It does look like an improvement over yesterday… We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. Still looks pretty hazy. Or is that “mist”?

It’s been 1 day with half the cars off the road here in Beijing. See my previous story for background info on this little exercise… Now, before you start complaining to me “Hey Chris, it’s only been a day - of course there won’t be a difference!” Yes. I know! I knew that before you did! Listen, this little “test” the govt is conducting is only lasting 4 days. 4 DAYS!