AQI and grocery missions

There are three things that I take into account here when planning my day: whether or not Steve is around, the weather, and the AQI. BAIC has almost an entire month of home games which is both good and bad news; it’s the best having him around BUT this means that he’ll likely be gone again for mmm at least three weeks at the end of December/beginning of January… boo. More on that good news thread is that he’ll be around for Christmas – yay! We have to start planning our meal – the when, the what (we know the who: Shanti, Freddie, Salvador and his wife and the four of us), and also whether or not we want to fit in any other Christmas Eve or Christmas Day activities. Onto the weather: it’s been sunny and clear here, but cold and very blustery. I’d say the recent average temperatures have been between somewhere close to zero, but with the wind it’s been much colder (today’s high is -2, the low is -10; currently, at 11:25, it’s -3). But more importantly, really, is the AQI. If you’re not sure what that means, it’s because you live in a place that has clean fresh air; your lungs don’t need daily reminders of pollution levels and take-these-safety-precautions, as per the air quality index reading. This, my friends, is my biggest beef with living here. On most days you can tell by looking outside what the AQI will be – is there blue sky? Can you see the mountains? If so, levels are probably pretty low. On other days – the ones where you can’t see across the street, those are the days the air tastes like garbage; you can literally taste the pollution-smog-gunk… it’s disgusting. And on those days we stay inside. To put this air quality business into perspective, check out this 2010 graph (thank you Enviro-Canada):

Beijing’s current AQI is 152, which is ridiculously high by Canadian standards, but average (ish) for Beijing. Last week there were a few low 30s readings (best ever), but we’ve also had some days measuring the mid and high 300s… seriously. The kids definitely don’t go outside on those days, and we big people only venture out to choke down the air if absolutely necessary. All five factors that contribute to poor air qualtiy are at play (/dominating the air-care game) here:

• Motor transport
• Small-scale manufacturers and other industries
• Burning of biomass and coal for cooking and heating
• Coal-fired power plants
• Household wood and coal burning for heating

lows and highs

And it makes me wonder, are the people here that much more unhealthy? Probably. And if you factor in the fact that there are more smokers in China than anywhere else in the world… ugh, more dirty air. Anyways, it could be worse and we’re not here for too too long. Thank goodness we can come home to clean air in Canada! Enough said.

Living here has made me even more thankful for even more things that we take for granted on a daily basis at home, and I’m still talking about luxuries, like driving to the grocery store. Getting groceries here is a bit of a mission – wait, rephrase: getting anything or anywhere is a bit of a mission. Transport-wise, we have three options: walking, taking a taxi or taking the subway. There are no grocery stores within walking distance, so subway is usually the choice mode of transport, and I’ve only been once on my own. And this means carrying an empty backpack there, and schlepping a very full backpack plus several very full bags home. The closest full service supermarket we’ve found is two stops away on the subway, and Saturday’s quick-ish round-trip there took me an hour and a half. There is an upscale market in one of the malls a few blocks away, and it’s our go-to place for milk and breakfast cereal, but for fruit and veggies (cheap) and reasonably priced dry and canned goods, we head to the Wu Mart (where my bill is almost never more than $45, and I come away with three huge heavy bags of food). And with a high expat populace and several international grocers, if you want something in particular (cottage cheese, mascarpone, lentils), Beijing is likely to have it somewhere – you just have to trek around to find it. Though again, it’s a bit of a mission to get there and back (we have to taxi to the foreign stores), especially with a 17-pound baby strapped to my body. Starting this week we’re having milk delivered, and if push comes to shove and I can’t get out to shop for food while Steve is away, then I’ll look into getting veggies delivered and order in. These are a few luxuries that we can enjoy here, along with the housekeeping and pool/workout room and security that comes with living here in our bubble, for our quality of life is much different from 99% (a made-up number) of the Chinese people living and working around us. But that’s another blog in itself…