Early spring recap
Finally!! It’s spring!! This is a key transition every year in China because, apart from marking the beginning of warmer temperatures, it usually also means less pollution. In winter the pollution is always the worst, I’m not sure why. Is it due to heating being on in the north? Is it because of some kind of weather effect that traps pollution in the winter? No idea, but that’s how it is. And to top things up, I felt that this winter was worse than the previous two. I don’t know if the air has been indeed worse (if so, it could be because China might be “forgetting” its environmental initiatives to favour industry production now that the economy is slowing) or if I just notice it more because I can’t take the baby outside as he cannot wear a mask until he is 2 years old. However C. also thinks the air has been worse this winter so it’s probably not just my imagination.
At the beginning of the year I had the idea of marking in the calendar the air quality for each day. This can be done easily using the colours for “good”, “moderate”, “unhealthy”, etc, that are used in air quality applications (a must-have app when you live in China, sadly). I started doing it on January 7 and until today, almost 3 months later, we’ve only had 7 half days of air considered good as per international standards (Chinese standards are different, less strict, as if pollution was not as dangerous for Chinese people). HALF days, which means that in 3 months we’ve only had 3.5 full days of safe air. That is a little over one day per month. Please give China a big round of applause. I really hope it gets better now that the winter is finally over (it felt eternal!!).
A couple of weekends ago we went to the 100 days party of our friends’ baby. He was born in mid December so he is 3.5 months younger than Baby A. but they already weigh the same! We even got a hand-me-down onesie that was too narrow for him and that Baby A. can wear!! I don’t know what’s in Chinese women’s breast milk to produce such big babies! My downstairs neighbour has a baby two days older than Baby A. and he weighs THREE MORE KILOS. That’s A LOT.
In the 100 days party there were some very cute sweets:
Another day we went to bury Nico’s ashes. It was about time. We buried them under a tree in a little park that should be safe from any construction works as there is a big high voltage tower in the middle. Nico’s neighbour for eternity is a friend’s dog who is also buried there.
Digging. Luckily it was just a small bag of ashes and not the whole body, because the ground was rock-hard.
Last Sunday it was a blue sky day and those days are not to be wasted as they are so scarce. I noticed our district is full of cherry trees. Are they new? I had not noticed them before. Maybe they were planted so Chinese people don’t feel the need to go to Japan on holiday, hehe.
Tomorrow is a holiday! It’s the Tomb Sweeping Festival, when people go to visit the graves of their dead relatives and ancestors. C. and his parents will go to their family’s village but I won’t because it’s at least a couple of hours by car and Baby A. is not too happy with long car rides. Besides, according to Chinese superstitions, babies can see spirits so they should not go to cemeteries!
We are having Spring too, it’s nice to see your happy photos!
Happy spring!! Are you more of a summer or a winter person? I was a winter person until I moved to a place where there is no heating hahaha
LOL – actually, I am a Spring and Fall person. I like cooler weather… not too cold, not too hot. Great for walking and listening to a podcast.
HEY, I am writing a children’s book. I would love to read some Chinese children’s books that are in “English, of course,” maybe you can write a post with some recommendations. :)
Oh, that’s an interesting topic and one I don’t know much about. A few weeks ago I went to a big bookstore looking for books for the baby and all were translations of foreign books! (I was just looking at the books with hard thick pages, I don’t know how they are called in English).
Do you know this blog? I think you might find it useful: https://chinesebooksforyoungreaders.wordpress.com/
Marta, I wished you lived close by, it would be nice to meet for coffee and share stories. When my children were little I had a few girlfriends and it was fun to meet them, we shared stories on raising our children, cooking, etc.
The hard thick paged books are called, “board books.”
THANK YOU for the website, I do not know this one. So much appreciated!
Here is a very cute book for your son called, “Chick a Chick a Boom Boom.” Do you know it? It’s fun for learning the alphabet, I think they turned this into a song on youtube too.
https://images.app.goo.gl/msgbzHt53AeS4WPH7
Right! Board book, thank you. I didn’t know that book! Thanks for the recommendation.
I am so glad spring is here! Here in North Carolina, we’ve been having crazy weather, shorts weather one day and then freezing the next. Another downside is the pollen that is EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, I’m not allergic, but my husband is, and he can barely go outside. It is also covering the cars and anything left outside.
Oh no! Being allergic sucks! Do masks help a bit or not really?
Weather in Spain has been crazy too, a couple of weeks ago people were in the beach and then last week it was snowing near Madrid…
Thoughts on the air quality in China..
Does the long winter and pollution ever
have you two talking about moving? To Spain
or elsewhere?
Kathryn
Pollution had never been one of my reasons for moving as I could “live with it” thanks to masks for going outside and air purifiers at home. However now with the baby it’s different… This past winter I wondered many times what the heck I’m doing here. Let’s see how things go…
I could see those thoughts coming to one, with kids they get a little
stir crazy and need to run around, and parents like to meet up with other parents.
Oh wow, lucky you! Cherry blossoms! No need to go to Japan all right, haha! 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Right? Cheaper and less crowded, hahaha!
That is some heinous air pollution. I live in Los Angeles, and we had no more than 4 days this winter with unhealthy air. It used to be so much worse here, but thanks to catalytic converters (plus an unusual number of rainy days, air quality has improved dramatically.
Unhealthy as in over 150 AQI? Here it also rained a lot in December and January but strangely it didn’t seem to help much :(
No, we never got to 150. But it did get up near 100, and here that’s considered unhealthy. We had more days like that during the wildfires.
100 is officially “unhealthy for sensitive groups”… and a “not too bad” winter day here :___(
Check this map someone shared in a comment! I think I’m going to be hooked. I didn’t expect Europe to have such shitty air…
https://www.purpleair.com/map?#3/35.71/12.54
That is cool!
Love the joke about China having cherry blossom trees!!!
But the thing is, Sue… Can we be sure it is really just a joke??? Hahaha!
Ha ha. You are right!!!!
I put a PM 2.5 sensor outside my apartment in Suzhou. https://www.purpleair.com/map#3.85/25.32/114.08
Click on the one in Suzhou
Note my PM 2.5 levels are higher, and sometimes, a lot higher than the official numbers. So yes, the air has been pretty bad this spring.
Oh, thanks a lot for the link! I have a laser egg and although I’m sure it is not as pro as your sensor, it often shows a higher AQI than the one in the app I use (Aqicn) and of course higher than the Chinese way of counting (that I check in the weather app integrated on my Xiaomi phone). For example, right now your sensor says 124, Aqicn says 91, the Chinese weather app says 78… And the laser egg says 175 outside my window…
Although my favourite way of checking is just looking outside the window… if I can see the mountains behind SND, it is a pretty good day. If I can barely see the Pants building, then better not leave the house!!
Yes, I also look at the buildings a bit farther, if they look hazy, it is not good.
Oh Nico.
I hope your next adventure is as fun as it was with your human Mama and Papa!
I hope so too! She has a friendly neighbour, so that’s a good start :)
:)
Nice photos, I’m glad you got to enjoy good weather. Suzhou does look quite nice. Chinese babies are often quite chubby, ha. In HK, I’ve even seen Chinese grandmas struggling to push their big grandkids in a stroller, which is kind of amusing but also tough for the grandma.
I thought babies here were often fat because they were overfed with formula but my friend and my neighbour are only breastfeeding so now I don’t know. Maybe it’s true that Chinese and Western bodies are different and Chinese boobs produce much more fat for their milk xD
When there’s a clean blue sky, I think anywhere can be nice, haha.
That’s interesting because I thought most Chinese mothers used formula milk. One possible reason could be Chinese babies get fed other things. I think traditionally it’s considered good for babies to be chubby though in these modern times, some Chinese people may be taking that too far.
OMG. The air quality – such a struggle on this side of the globe. Northern Thailand has had a banner year with Chiang Mai consistently #1 in the worst air quality in the WORLD. It’s probably the accumulation of lack of gov’t regulations. We’re basically seeing the consequences of no public transport, no alternatives for farmers who burn their crops every year, and lack of rain.
I hate to say this but I’m SO glad we moved down south. But this doesn’t change the fact that I have family and friends up there who have had to endure the worst air in probably a decade – maybe ever. It would behoove Asia to get together and work on this problem. I check the air quality every day.
But in other news, love the blue skies and cherry blossoms. Glad Nico is in a nice resting place. And love these little updates. Happy Spring!
I didn’t know Thailand also had bad pollution. It’s always China and India on the news. Now I’m seeing that all South Asia and Central Europe are quite bad too: https://www.purpleair.com/map#3/31.04/64.32
Another site that tracks the air quality. Thanks. Had no idea that Europe was so bad either.