Beijing in June

mwgrice

This is an untouched image taken from a bridge over the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing. For the curious, that ain't fog. This is a pretty typical summer day in Beijing, one of the smoggiest cities in the world. We did have a couple of days when the smog cleared.

I like this shot because it gives you a sense of what the "real" Beijing is like. However, I waited a bit too long to take this shot and I missed the height of the rush hour.

mwgrice

Hmmmmmmm. I think I need to realign that a bit...

Higgmeister

Hi MW,
What a gruesome shot. You can keep Beijing. When I was young, I used to watch the smog banks (literally) roll south of LA down into Orange County. I can remember days when you couldn't see the hills that were less than 10 miles away, nor could you see the city from on top of the hill because the inversion layer was so thick that it looked like cloud cover (viewing from the top). Yuck, what terrible memories. When I moved away from SoCal, I couldn't even see the mountains that were only 5 miles from the freeway. I know I could never live in a place like that again...NEVER!!.

As for the photo, I think it's an important document of a time and place. Maybe not artsy, but just as important and well spoken.

Thanks for the memories:cry,
Chris

chickendrop

I was just there too! In fact I walked across that exact bridge almost everyday. I just posted a bunch of shots from the trip. Check out the very first one. Absolutely disgusting. Nice capture by the way!

schmoo

I'm slightly torn about the weather condtions in urban China. On one hand it is a blight to the environment but on the other hand, it's a very distinctive characteristic that they're known for. I think there can be some very interesting shots showing off that pretty unique feature, especially when it comes to the Factory of the World.