This morning, Beijing woke up in a massive yellow cloud. Motorists found their cars covered by thick layers of yellow grit. Air filters were quickly overwhelmed. What happened? A huge sand storm had transported tons of sand from the Gobi desert and dumped it on China’s capital. According to China Daily, the “Beijing weather bureau sent an alarm Friday night, warning a sandstorm was ‘on its way’. Yet many residents were utterly unprepared.”
Sand storms are a common occurrence in Beijing, and have given rise to a daily car wash index. Today’s storm has been recorded as the strongest of the year.
The sand storm delayed flights at the airport and triggered warnings as far as Seoul, Korea, and Tokyo, Japan.
According to ABC News, “the grit can travel as far as the western United States.”
There you go: Chinese imports that won’t affect the balance of payment.
And if the people squawk too much about it, they might get a bullet in the back of the head, courtesy of the warlords.
Ok, I’m in China. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, you’ll know the Chicom Warlords got me. Sorry, there’s a knock at the door, must run.
“Ok, I’m in China. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, you’ll know the Chicom Warlords got me. Sorry, there’s a knock at the door, must run.”
.
Wait… don’t forget your surgical mask!
I wonder what our Australian communist overloards think about your words…
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2009/09/24/1225779/067358-sydney-sand-storm-.jpg
Amazing how just under a century of Communist party agricultural mismanagement managed to create one of the biggest deserts in the world.
Wait… you say the Gobi desert predates Mao? Blasphemy! Nothing predates the Great Leader!
You say Great Leader?
You have never met a truly great leader unless you have met all too lovable Kim Jong Il!
The Dear Leader has created an agricultural powerhouse worthy of twenty peasants!
You are just jealous because chicks dig him.
Bertel: Wonder the Great Poseur perfected that pose during his years as a Great Casting Couch Director (see link for answer).
Because as far as The Great Inspecteur and his chicks go, I prefer this pic:
http://www.korea-is-one.org/IMG/Kim_Jong_Il_at_Anju_Chicken_Farm-400.jpg
“There you go: Chinese imports that won’t affect the balance of payment.”
Possibly so … even importing babies from China starts with a small negative BoP which, Sea Turtles excluded, can only grow over time!
Air pollution, including toxic heavy metals, are being measured in ever greater numbers in our normally pristine air in Oregon. Thanks, China!
Thanks, Paul.
Could you please ask Verticalscope to give me hazardous duty pay?
Every few years, here in Switzerland, we get sandstorms from N. Africa … it turns the sky an amazing orange yellow red color against the mountains it is both beautiful and eerie.
… and sometimes the snow. Seen it myself in Austria. You need a Foehn for that, that strange wind that drives people nuts …
Better orange snow than yellow…
I can hear the enviornmentals crying; “we must save the Gobi now before it all goes down the drain of a Hong-Kong car wash.”
Oh the horror!
See what happens when you fail to practice simple, basic xeriscaping? You get global sanding. Same thing’s been happening in North Africa because of the last few (hundred) lazy generations of Bedouin and Tuareg. The result? What’s come to be known as a scirocco, choking the most beautiful parts of Mediterranean Europe in gritty sand. It’s time for the U.N. to start a ‘go green’ effort to reclaim the Sahara and Gobi, and to train the inhabitants in at least the basics of sustainable desert living.
Didn’t they just auction off several parcels of land whose unit price rival that of Tokyo?
Guess they need all that sand to make new land to sell.
I wonder how sandstorms and hot climates affect vehicles. Can someone from a very hot and sandy place tell me what extra precautions they have to take, in such an environment?
– Change air filter and oil more often.
– Keep car in garage if you have one.
– Wash car after sand storm, not before.
Bertel,
So, how do you write, “Wash Me,” in Chinese?
:)
I was under the impression that the Gobi Desert existed prior to the methodologies of the “Chicom warlords”.
Either I’m very mistaken on this point, or they don’t teach enough geography at bigot school.