Two nights ago the smog remained in the 400's all night, by morning in the 300's and steadily dropped through out the day to under 100! It was so nice, we got to go out and run around in sweatshirts.
Today I woke to 466 and hoped for a repeat of the decreasing smog level. It was the boys last day before school started so I wanted to do something with them. By lunch time it was over 500!
Later that afternoon I got to talk to a friend in Texas who was telling me how windy it was there and told her to send some my way. And she must've because the wind started whipping the garbage around outside up past our 10th floor window. Then the wind calmed down dramatically and I could see the smog had improved greatly and checked it was 167! Yeah, we can get outside for a bit. So we donned our winter jackets and went back to the park that was teeming with kids yesterday. We had the park to ourselves. So I went down the slide with the kids, Ethan had my arm and the static electricity was a constant pain where he held my arm. Ouch. Then when I got off the slide I actually felt the sparks go through my toes. Weird!
We only stayed out about 45 minutes to an hour and went back. My plan to grab my purse and head back out to the store. My mother-in-law wanted to wait for my father-in-law to get back from an errand to all go. Okay.
By the time we leave the wind was whipping again, it ripped my mother-in-laws hat off her head, I felt mine threatening to fly and stuck it in my pocket. The grocery bag on wheels was flying like a balloon and we were dragging the kids through flying sand and debris. I left the gloves at home, since they were not needed when we went to the park, and had frozen fingers. We decided it would be best to return home.
About 5 minutes later we were at our entrance where several men were stopping people from walking that sidewalk at the entrance of our building, due to a fallen piece of..... roof? Landed on a section of glass awning leaving it crackly looking. Oh my, had it just happened as we left? I don't know.
The wind continues to howl through the door and down the hall, we sit laughing and shaking our heads that we went out in that craziness.
I always trust the US Embassy smog numbers and when I read their six levels, to me it's not safe after 150. Their reader is in the center of Beijing. The Chinese reader is outside of Beijing and is normally lower, so I thought perhaps fudged, but yesterday it was higher. Now look how they name their seven smog levels. It sounds like it's safe until 250.
After a half hour of wind
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