Weekend relaxation, seeing historic sights and pollution

Lately a lot of people have been talking about making trips to escape from smog, and that's exactly what my family did last weekend. Waking up on a smoggy Saturday morning, we decided to get out of Beijing to get some fresh air.

We chose Luoyang, Henan province, about 800 kilometers to the south of the capital, a journey that takes about four hours by high-speed train. So we could come home for work and school on Monday.

On our way we stopped at Anyang, about 500 kilometers away from Beijing, for two hours, and visited some ancient ruins. The small city had been the capital of the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) for nearly 300 years, and many oracle bones were unearthed there between 1928 and 1937.

The moment we got out of the Anyang station, we were shrouded with heavy smog, and it was so dark it was hard to credit it was just 3 pm. The PM2.5 index must be at least 500, my son said, judging by the intensity of the smell. We checked the phone, and he was dead right. How sad that a 15-year old should have developed such a skill.

We concluded our visit to the ruins hastily, regretting we had failed to carry face masks. But strangely, nobody we saw on the streets of Anyang wore them. A taxi driver said that Anyang is often smoggy, but few people are in the habit of wearing masks. Perhaps they are unaware of how hazardous air pollution is.

By the time we got to our hotel in Luoyang, it was evening and the smog had become even thicker. The manager of the hotel, one of the best in the city, said it does not provide or sell masks. The only place I could get them was a pharmacy 15 minutes' drive away, but that had already closed.

The next morning we visited the Longmen Grottoes, well-known for Buddhist statues built along both sides of the Yi River, mostly between the 5th century and the 10th century. Among the thousands of statues there, the most magnificent is the 17-meter-tall Vairocana Buddha, built during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), and bearing resemblance to the face of China's only empress, Wu Zetian.

The best place to view the Buddha is said to be from the other side of the river, especially when she basks in the morning glow. But not the day we were there: Looking across the river, we could barely see her face, let alone her smile, one that some say is as mysterious as that of the Mona Lisa. She was shrouded in the haze.

On my way back to Beijing, I checked the figures and found that Anyang and Luoyang had had only four or five days in the previous month when the PM2.5 index was below 100. Most of the days, the cities' air was "very unhealthy" or "hazardous". So for being a heavily-polluted city in the country, Beijing has serious rivals.

The trip made me realize how widely polluted the country has become. You travel more than 800 kilometers and cannot escape the smog, so how far do you have to go? Some say the only places in China where you can breathe fresh air are the Tibetan autonomous region and Hainan province. But if you go to those places you cannot stay forever.

Anyang and Luoyang, both cradles of Chinese civilization, are home to many historical sites. However, their economies now rely on heavy industries, including machinery building, steel-making and mining. In Luoyang, the service industry accounts for less than 30 percent of its GDP. The city plans to increase the percentage of culture-related industries to 5 percent of its GDP in 2020. For an ancient capital of 13 dynasties and kingdoms, that goal is way too modest even if it is realized today.

Apart from that, they are close to Hebei province, whose factories contribute heavily to the neighboring regions, including Beijing. So the vast expanses of northern and central China are prone to air pollution, especially in winter as a result of central heating.

Mind you, one good thing about the trip was that the trains were all punctual. They arrived and departed within a minute of the scheduled times.

It reminds me of how prosperous the country has become, with more kilometers of railways built, more high-speed train lines developed, equipment and technologies more advanced and management more effective. And the trains are always fully booked.

To maintain this progress we rely on natural resources, mining, steel and manufacturing, and finding a balance between development and protecting the environment remains a great concern.

Apart from regretting making such trips to places with air pollution that is worse than the stuff I am trying to escape, I cannot help thinking that it would be better for us not to make such trips at all, thus reducing our contribution to the environmental damage we so abhor.

yaoying@chinadaily.com.cn

                                                                                                                               (China Daily USA 01/28/2016 page11)