A smoggy day in Shenzhen town
Jul 25th, 2006 by Andrew
Over the past few days the smog has been getting progressively worse in Shenzhen. This is most likely due to the fact that it hasn’t rained for about a week. Some of the days have been hot and quite dry, almost reminiscent of a summer day in Sydney. This makes the smogginess seem worse.
Today (Sunday) Gail & I were both feeling a little choked up, which was a little unusual. We went out to the Luo Hu shopping centre in the morning (”DVD?, copy watch?, you buy handbag?, hey missy?, golf club?, lookie lookie?, I give you best price”) and went to the King Elephant restaurant on the 5th floor for an early Dim Sum lunch. Whilst waiting we were just overcome by the total smokiness of the place as smoking is permitted in restaurants here. People on the 3 tables closest to us were all frequently smoking. Gail felt the need to step outside for a little while. In the end as soon as our food was served we asked for it to be “da bao”, i.e. take away. We both felt light-headed, queasy and like triple-smoked bacon!
On our way home we made up the following parody of “A Foggy Day in London town”, as sung by Frank Sinatra, and with apologies to George and Ira Gershwin.
A Smoggy Day in Shenzhen Town
A smoggy day, in Shenzhen town,
It had me low, it had me down.
I viewed the morning, with much alarm,
The Shenzhen Museum, never had any charm.
How long I wondered, could this smog last,
But the age of blue skies, it was past.
And suddenly, I couldn’t see you there,
And in smoggy Shenzhen town, the sun - it wasn’t anywhere.
4 Responses to “A smoggy day in Shenzhen town”
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on 25 Jul 2006 at 12:04 pm1TomPardonnez moi, madame et monseuir, mais c’est de George et Ira Girshwin, non Frank Sinatra.
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on 25 Jul 2006 at 12:58 pm2AndrewYes, yes, true, true, the Gershwins wrote the song but the tune and style I had in mind was that of Sinatra. There, I have edited the post now.
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on 06 Aug 2006 at 9:46 am3WozzaPardonnez moi, madame et monseuir, mais c’est de George et Ira Girshwin, non Frank Sinatra.
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on 13 Dec 2006 at 9:15 pm4the fault always lies elsewhere « MikeFitz with overflow bit set…[…] Mrs Fitz was in China in September and October 2006. Every time I spoke to her on the phone, she had a hacking smoker’s cough - for several weeks. She doesn’t smoke. It was the air pollution. She travelled extensively in China and the only place she saw clear sky was in Tibet. Others have posted photos of the pollution in Shenzen, just over the border from Hong Kong. […]