Hong Kong: Asia's Polluted City
I miss blue skies and starry skies. Been back for 3 days, and I've been living in a haze, litterally. It's not jet lag; it's that grey film hanging over the city that obstructs visibility and causes all sorts of respiratory tract and sinus irritations. I love living in Hong Kong, but the poor air quality is what will eventually send me packing to live in other parts of the world where I can breathe with ease -- Vancouver immediately comes to mind or even New York City, where most of the days I've spent there have been blue sky days.
At a recent lunch conversation, we were talking about a mutual acquaintance now living in Sydney. One, who was in recent contact with him, reported that he was a happy, health-conscious yoga instructor in his spare time and added, "It's amazing what breathing can do for you!" It's true. I walk around this city and see so many stressed-out, blank, even miserable-looking faces. If only they could spend a day on the ski slopes or a night camping under the star-lit skies! Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has been the talk of the town even before it won Lee an Oscar for Best Director. The advertising tagline for the movie is: "Everyone has their own Brokeback Mountain". I would say that a large majority of the 7 million people living in Hong Kong have not had the luxury of spending a night in untouched wilderness with the stars to light their path and the sounds of nature to lull them to sleep. For those who want the luxe version of this, they should spend a night sleeping in the star beds at Loisaba in Kenya.
Hong Kong's tourism board should really be more proactive about alleviating the air quality problem. It's Rugby Sevens weekend here. Tons of visitors in town. But I wonder how the players feel about playing and breathing in all this polluted air. And the visual impression of Hong Kong most tourists will depart with will be a skyline hidden in haze. Imagine how much more beautiful Hong Kong would be with its stellar skyline, shimmering in the clear harbour, against a backdrop of verdant, green mountains and clear, blue skies!
Hong Kong pays a lot of lip service to wanting to be "Asia's World City", nurturing more competitive atheletes or even becoming a more creative, innovation-led economy. How can we do any of these things when we struggle so hard, day after day, just to breathe a breath of clean, fresh air and catch a clear glimpse of our inspiring cityscape?
It'll probably be a while before we have clean air again. In the meantime, perhaps Pure Yoga might consider conducting yoga classes in oxygen-enriched yoga studios and Pure Fitness might want to convert its hypoxic cardio room into an oxygen-enriched cardio room.
Today is actually a sunny day, but this is the view from my office in Causeway Bay, with a sliver of a view of Tsim Sha Tsui across what's left of our still-shrinking Victoria Harbour:
Wi-Fi connection used:
netvigator account @ Starbucks: HK$3/10 minutes or HK$18/hour
At a recent lunch conversation, we were talking about a mutual acquaintance now living in Sydney. One, who was in recent contact with him, reported that he was a happy, health-conscious yoga instructor in his spare time and added, "It's amazing what breathing can do for you!" It's true. I walk around this city and see so many stressed-out, blank, even miserable-looking faces. If only they could spend a day on the ski slopes or a night camping under the star-lit skies! Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has been the talk of the town even before it won Lee an Oscar for Best Director. The advertising tagline for the movie is: "Everyone has their own Brokeback Mountain". I would say that a large majority of the 7 million people living in Hong Kong have not had the luxury of spending a night in untouched wilderness with the stars to light their path and the sounds of nature to lull them to sleep. For those who want the luxe version of this, they should spend a night sleeping in the star beds at Loisaba in Kenya.
Hong Kong's tourism board should really be more proactive about alleviating the air quality problem. It's Rugby Sevens weekend here. Tons of visitors in town. But I wonder how the players feel about playing and breathing in all this polluted air. And the visual impression of Hong Kong most tourists will depart with will be a skyline hidden in haze. Imagine how much more beautiful Hong Kong would be with its stellar skyline, shimmering in the clear harbour, against a backdrop of verdant, green mountains and clear, blue skies!
Hong Kong pays a lot of lip service to wanting to be "Asia's World City", nurturing more competitive atheletes or even becoming a more creative, innovation-led economy. How can we do any of these things when we struggle so hard, day after day, just to breathe a breath of clean, fresh air and catch a clear glimpse of our inspiring cityscape?
It'll probably be a while before we have clean air again. In the meantime, perhaps Pure Yoga might consider conducting yoga classes in oxygen-enriched yoga studios and Pure Fitness might want to convert its hypoxic cardio room into an oxygen-enriched cardio room.
Today is actually a sunny day, but this is the view from my office in Causeway Bay, with a sliver of a view of Tsim Sha Tsui across what's left of our still-shrinking Victoria Harbour:
Wi-Fi connection used:
netvigator account @ Starbucks: HK$3/10 minutes or HK$18/hour
Labels: environment, gripes
posted by 10000miles at 13:28
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