If there’s one thing that a person living in Beijing consistently keeps track of even more than the stock market index, it would be the Beijing Air Pollution: Real time Air Quality Index (AQI).
The highest reading ever recorded in Beijing was 900, 100 being ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’. The reading of 400 is considered ‘hazardous’ and 500 used to be the maximum (yes, maximum) reading in accordance to the recently revised standards of the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Most of the international schools in Beijing have built indoor playgrounds for their kids. Terms like ‘indoor day’ or ‘pollution day’ are popular amongst the 6 and 7 year olds. “We didn’t go outside today because it’s pollution day”, my 7 year old would tell me every other day.
In the car driving to the city, we constantly have to rub our eyes because we couldn’t really make out whether there are problems with our vision or is the air really that dirty.
We have 8 units of IQ Airs in my home. Stepping into my house, I’m constantly hit with the feeling that I’ve has just stepped into the mountains or something like that. The filters are very expensive but at least it brought us some peace of mind over the state of our health.
The pastors at churches are constantly praying for the change of the status of the AQI. Many testimonies like “after Pastor so and so prayed over Beijing it rained for a whole week!” and “after Pastor this and that prayed, the AQI went down to 40 the next day! That pastor is a real prayer warrior”.
So, it’s fun in that way. In Beijing, us Christians are always waiting to see which pastor has the most powerful prayers.
Today, the reading is 30 and good. Wonder which pastor did it this time.. J
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