China Pollution and my Lungs in Beijing

** For the follow-up to this post after my trip to Beijing, please read more here.

There are some pretty scary reports and pictures of the pollution in Beijing. Just take a look at this one taken by The World by Road Expedition when the crew was travelling through China:

Who could tell that an entire city lies ahead in this picture? The World by Crew amply commented on this photo: The city skyline is out there somewhere.

ESPN reporter Bob Holtzman reported in his latest “Outside the Lines” on Beijing report that “had the Olympics been held last August, the air quality in Beijing would have been in violation of the World Health Organization standard every single day.” (There’s a great video accompanying his article.) And even scarier are the health risks that such polluted air causes for the Chinese. Kevin Holden Platt for National Geographic News stated that, “A World Health Organization (WHO) report estimates that diseases triggered by indoor and outdoor air pollution kill 656,000 Chinese citizens each year.” Indeed Olympic athletes have a lot to worry about when it comes to performance under such unnerving air quality.

As a person who will be more than traveling in Beijing this summer for the Olympics, but living there for 3 months, these statistics are enough to send me running back to my Tennessee hills. I genuinely care about my non-smoker lungs and prefer to preserve them from turning out like I’ve been smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day for my entire life.

(thank me later for posting an illustration instead of an actual picture)

So what precautions am I taking to protect my valuable breathing machines? I have four different “tools” to aid my lungs against the pollution in China:

1. A prescribed inhaler

My very good-looking internal medicine doctor prescribed an Albuterol inhaler after visiting him for my traveler’s doctor appointment. I’ve never had any asthma problems in my life, but I’ll have this in case I have problems breathing indicated by wheezing. The inhaler won’t actually help filter any pollution in the air since it only opens up the lungs; it will only aid in my breathing.

2. Portable oxygen: Personal Oxygen Device (POD)

While this doesn’t have any medical claims, it will offer a fresh breath of air comprised of 95% oxygen and 5% nitrogen. It’s portable, lightweight and easy to use. I can already picture days where I’m going to forget what clean air means and this little thing will provide some comfort by supplying doses of pure air. Unfortunately, this also won’t filter pollution and will only offer fresh air for my poor lungs.

3. Doctor’s masks

This highly attractive look is compliments of a doctor’s surgical mask which will provide my best defense for filtering Beijing’s polluted air. It’s not a silver-bullet answer by any means, but it will help filter the air from the larger floating particles (like debris from construction). The box does claim they’re proven effective in reducing the spread of germs and bacteria and also help provide relief from common household dust, ragweed pollen and yard dusts….extremely comforting to know!

One disappointing Google search revealed from Time Asia that:

MYTH: A surgical mask can screen out air pollution.
FACT: Absolutely untrue. Surgical masks can’t filter out the relatively tiny particles and gases like nitrogen dioxide that cause the most damage to your body. Gas masks with fine air filters can offer some protection, but the filters need to be changed often and the masks are uncomfortable, especially in warm weather.

ANOTHER FACT: Things aren’t looking good for my lungs!

4. Bandanas

I have been known to sport a bandana to help offset sweat while in S.E. Asia (see my About page picture); however, if I use this to sheild my face in China, it will offer more psychological comfort more than anything else. I’m not ashamed to admit, I’ll take a placibo pill in the form of a bandana if it will ease my mind a little…at least I’ll have my POD and inhaler in case I do need help breathing!

After putting each of these to the test, I’ll let you know how well they worked. Although it looks like there’s not much I can do to protect my lungs while over there. Until then, I’m soaking up as much clean O2 as I can hear in Cambridge!

Happy travels,

Helen

Bonus for reading my entire posting:

Check out this really interesting flash animation with startling facts on China’s pollution from E-Ranlai Magazine.

My China packing list is up and I have my visa in hand!

Not only have the Celtics won the NBA Finals tonight but today marks exactly two weeks before I depart for China! While watching the game, I typed out as thorough of a China packing list as I could which can be found under the To-Do page. I still haven’t typed out my clothing packing list, but will get to it soon – think less, comfortable, withstanding heat, and thick soles, and that basically sums it up.

Yesterday I picked up my passport which now is home to my China visa!! With that in hand, I have now obtained every possible paperwork and approval from China that says I can officially enter the country. It’s a HUGE relief!

I also had the honor of having coffee with John Powers yesterday who is a reporter for the Boston Globe and has been writing about China’s preparations for the Olympics. It was quite a treat to hear from an experienced journalist who’s been there and will also be there for the Olympics! Check out his most recent article here.

For the most part, I have everything I’m going to pack. I have a doctor’s appointment Friday to get the last of the prescriptions I may need, like an inhaler for the pollution. So everything is coming along nicely. Although the piles of supplies spread out over my living room floor looks chaotic, I feel prepared (mostly). There’s only a handful of things left to cross off from my to-do list and before I know it, I’ll be boarding a plane to Shanghai!

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Happy travel preparations and Celtic celebrations!

Helen

Rednecks

On a short flight from Boston to New York a couple of weeks ago I sat by a very nice lady born and bred in Massachusetts heading to a convention in Portland, Oregon. We had a pleasant conversation about Boston and the usual small chat including how I am from Tennessee but don’t sport a Southern accent. She made a hilarious comment about her husband, describing him as a “wicked redneck.” For those not familiar with Boston and Massachusetts slang, “wicked” is still intertwined into the fabric of local Bostonian everyday speech; however, I’d never heard it paired with “redneck.” “Redneck” is something that I deeply associate with the guys who had rebel flags plastered all over their pickup trucks in the high school parking lot back in East Tennessee among other local nuances like spitting chew into whatever cup may be available.

When I made the 5 hour driving leap from Pigeon Forge, TN to the “big” city of Cincinnati, OH, for college I thought I’d left all the rednecks behind me, endearing and friends as they are. My bubble burst after the first fireworks event I went to on the riverfront in Cinci. The familiar sights of males with long, straggly hair sporting Dale Earnhardt attire were abundant. Ah, memories of home came flooding back, but more than that it was apparent, rednecks weren’t just in Tennessee.

Now that I’ve lived in Boston for over a year and a half, worked at a sports bar in Allston and generally gotten a handle on the city, it is apparent rednecks are here too. While they don’t have the same roots as the term “redneck” in the South, derived from farmers working in the sun and incidentally getting sunburns on their necks, some of the same characteristics of what I know from home thrive here in mostly blue collar, born and bred Massachusetts locals. The best adjective I can come up with to describe the consistent characteristic is “good ole boys” (while this has a masculine reference, it also includes females!). They are tied to their roots, don’t stray too far from home, have the same set of core friends for life and may appear a little rough around the edges but underneath just good people doing what they know how to. While Jeff Foxworthy has a whole lot of humorous points, him and the popularity of NASCAR attest to the fact that rednecks are everywhere, even in the form of wicked rednecks here in New England. As I’m writing this, a slight smile has crept up on my face, because deep down, I know I have a little redneck in me and it just took a plane ride chat to remind me of my own roots.

The Fung Wah Bus vs. the BoltBus Challenge

The Challenge: Which bus is the better discount bus between Boston and New York City?

As reported in an earlier blog posting on Fung Wah’s competitors, it can’t be denied that discount buses have come to Boston and are here to stay! The big players are the Fung Wah, the BoltBus and the Megabus with one way trips to New York from Boston costing $15 or less each way. On the last quick trip to New York I tested out the BoltBus to see what all the hype was about, and props to my mom who went along for the journey. We took the BoltBus to New York City and the Fung Wah on our way back to Boston so we had back to back experiences to use to compare the two discount buses. The votes are in, and the judges have decided that depending on what you want in your discount bus depends on which bus is best for you.

Overall the BoltBus is cleaner partly because it still has the air of a new vehicle. It does have more room than the Fung Wah but the best part is that you can plug in your laptop and use wireless service the entire trip! It was absolutely great to maximize my time and catch up on my emails for the 4-5 hour trek between the two cities. My uncles wasn’t convinced that it drops you off in the best party of the Big Apple, but my mom and I couldn’t tell the difference and had no complaints about the drop-off spot.

On the flip side, the Fung Wah was perfect on our trip back because we didn’t know exactly what time we wanted to leave New York City. It depended on how long lunch would be and how much shopping we could bear (shopping is always so tortuous!). When the time came for us to head to Boston, we simply went up to Fung Wah’s counter in China Town and bought our tickets guaranteed at $15 each way and hopped on the next bus that came. Since I couldn’t plug in my laptop on the Fung Wah, my mom and I enjoyed quality talk time without distractions unlike on the BoltBus where my eyes were glued to my laptop screen the entire way. The Fung Wah experience is always a little colorful whether if its hearing the Chinese driver yell to the ticket-taker in Mandarin (possibly Cantonese?) or the person behind you bitch on a cell phone in a raspy voice, it all makes the ride a little more interesting!

The Conclusion: So for future trips, if I book in advance and plan to use or not use my laptop, the BoltBus is perfect. The more in advance I can book the tickets, the cheaper the seats will be which is always a bonus. And when I say cheaper, seats can go for $1 if I book two weeks in advance – that’s a steal! For trips when I don’t want to be locked into a specific travel time, the Fung Wah inevitably is the perfect choice. Now you can take the challenge and decide for yourself!

Travel Journals

I’m anal-retentive about three things: pens, travel journals and agenda books. Just this year I had to order my gold-gilded agenda book online. It may be old school, but I live by it every day and it serves as my working journal to document my activities minus in-depth detail beyond the time and place of my everyday happenings. My non-travel journal is usually reserved for venting or documenting life-changing moments I don’t want to forget. Mostly, I only write in journals when I travel. And when I travel, my journal serves as my rock and personal retreat. It allows me to record the mundane to amazing things that happen while traveling and forces me to reflect on them. When I need to slow down, I bury myself into writing comforted in knowing that I’ll never lose the moments once they’ve been inscribed in pen. The back of my journal has always served as a place for new friends to write their emails and contact information. A place to sketch, record quotes and make lists ranging from stereotypes foreigners have about Americans to the slang words I learn. Every time I glance through the pages, memories come rushing back and a smile always emerges.

Just last week I made the big purchase and got this summer’s travel journal. I found it while getting Father’s Day cards at Borders…and I scrutinized all of the options available related to the journal product category! The aspect I like best about The One is that dividers with pockets are spread throughout the journal and are great places to save tickets, postcards or other paper memorabilia, and on occasion a beer coaster. Even more exciting is that there are plastic sleeves and even a plastic zip-lock envelop in the back! I’m really excited to put my first trinket from my China trip in there!!

Here she is:

Even though I got this travel journal at the Borders in downtown Boston, the only place I saw it online is at Amazon’s UK site. For my Europe trip, I used a nice notebook from NoteBound which also had a hard plastic cover, ring binder and plastic sleeves. That one raised the bar above my other travel journal which just had a pretty design on the cover, so I was happy to find this one which ups my standards a little higher. While some may wonder why my “high standards” aren’t reflected in a leather bound journal, the practical person inside of me loves the hard plastic durability and ability to store paper and whatever other memorabilia throughout the pages. The plastic cover may not be completely waterproof, but that’s why I’ll keep it in a plastic bag when it’s traveling in my backpack with me!

Happy traveling, living and sharing the moments!

Helen