"There's so much pollution in the air right now that if it weren't for our lungs
there'd be no place to put it all"
~Robert Orben
Boy oh boy was I surprised when the disgusting reality that was China smacked me in the face with blackened mucus and heavy lungs. I was greeted with what seemed to be the excrement of the entire universe spluttering into the atmosphere via the over-populated Chinese cities.
I had expected the most beautiful architecture and scenery I had ever had the privilege to being exposed to. My naivety shone through when the stench in the tunnelled streets of Beijing really tested my gag reflexes. The swarms of people scuffling around relieving themselves on the pavement and spitting as if it were polite frightened my vision and really challenged my strength. This was all happening in the few minutes I had taken to walk down the street.
Driving to the airport two days later was a journey I would love to forget, alas it was far too traumatising to give me peaceful nights. I was driven by a maniac (any Chinese driver in China) through the industrial area of Beijing, the sickening ebony fumes that descended upon the road was enough to choke every African nation. The ailments began the moment I stepped out of the controlled environment of the airplane. First the migraines, followed by a throaty stammer and phlegm induced rasp.
The dust was so thick it barely trembled at the rumble of a beastly bus. The few antique trees that suffocated on the sidewalks looked dull and impoverished. I couldn't stop finding things at fault with the new place I found myself clumsily navigating.
It was once I touched down in Yanji (North China) that I truly realised the extent of the revulsion. My new employer, who was probably the source of most of the poison purely because of his rancid attitude, drove me into the city and my eyes nearly landed on the tar in front of me. Unfortunately for my mind’s eye there was traffic backing up the bridge over the river. When I left South Africa I had no idea at all at the powerful extent of control the government had over the media especially with outgoing material. Do yourself a favour and do the google, if you google “Yanji river”, you come up with a result not far off from this;
I had expected the most beautiful architecture and scenery I had ever had the privilege to being exposed to. My naivety shone through when the stench in the tunnelled streets of Beijing really tested my gag reflexes. The swarms of people scuffling around relieving themselves on the pavement and spitting as if it were polite frightened my vision and really challenged my strength. This was all happening in the few minutes I had taken to walk down the street.
Driving to the airport two days later was a journey I would love to forget, alas it was far too traumatising to give me peaceful nights. I was driven by a maniac (any Chinese driver in China) through the industrial area of Beijing, the sickening ebony fumes that descended upon the road was enough to choke every African nation. The ailments began the moment I stepped out of the controlled environment of the airplane. First the migraines, followed by a throaty stammer and phlegm induced rasp.
The dust was so thick it barely trembled at the rumble of a beastly bus. The few antique trees that suffocated on the sidewalks looked dull and impoverished. I couldn't stop finding things at fault with the new place I found myself clumsily navigating.
It was once I touched down in Yanji (North China) that I truly realised the extent of the revulsion. My new employer, who was probably the source of most of the poison purely because of his rancid attitude, drove me into the city and my eyes nearly landed on the tar in front of me. Unfortunately for my mind’s eye there was traffic backing up the bridge over the river. When I left South Africa I had no idea at all at the powerful extent of control the government had over the media especially with outgoing material. Do yourself a favour and do the google, if you google “Yanji river”, you come up with a result not far off from this;
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| Taken from the internet |
If you google “Yanji river pollution”, you come up with identical results. I can assure you that that is Yanji city, that is her river and that is her bridge because I drove over that bridge several times during my stay. The water is murky brown and sprinkled generously with paper, plastic and muck. Fishermen line the shores, scooping in fish from the same area that women are washing clothes, children are using the river as a bathroom and people are taking baths. I have never been exposed to such a nauseating sensual awakening in my life. It was worse than any South African street and any Kenyan township, and that is saying more than just a lot.
I then relocated to the South of China. I took the photograph below, which was the view from my hotel room where I lived whilst I taught in Mianyang. That pure white sky is not a lovely overcast day but a low hanging cloud of poison, although much more presentable than Yanji and Beijing the city was still intoxicated by pollution.
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| Taken by me |
The terrible effects of the acidity of the air were clear in every clinic I was exposed to. There was one I passed everyday on my stroll to work where every day there were 8-12 different children under the age of eight years old hooked up to drips and breathing machinery. Due to the language barrier I couldn’t find out what precisely the situation was but by looking at the mothers whilst they cradled their children and gathered outside the clinic to watch television on the pavement that this was not a new episode for any of them.
I struggled to breathe in the cities and only when I was in air conditioned atmospheres did my alveoli have a chance to become flaccid and open. My body was adverse to everything happening around me in the foreign dirty land but my mind was fascinated. I lived amongst the filth for seven/eight months and it was after all of this time of being a cockroach in the rubble that I decided that China was without a doubt, the world’s anus.
Anus haha
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