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Chasing clouds in world gone awry
By Wang Yong |
May 24, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IN ode to the beauty of chasing clouds on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, musician Guo Chuwang (1190-1260) composed one of China's top 10 classical guqin melodies, Xiao Xiang Shui Yun (Clouds Over Xiao and Xiang Rivers).
Now, nearly 800 years later, few musicians would be so inspired to write such a song. The same vast waters, mainly around Dongting Lake, have dwindled drastically due to rare droughts. Nearly 200,000 of the 660,000 residents of Yueyang City at the heart of the lake area are suffering from an acute shortage of drinking water, People's Daily reported last week.
Like the Dongting Lake area, many other regions along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have witnessed the worst droughts in 60 years, China News Service reported yesterday. These rare droughts lead many Chinese to ask if the Three Gorges Dam is to blame - a valid but not perfect question.
Valid, because the dam project has altered nature to a certain extent. Lu Yaoru, a geological expert, told the Oriental Morning Post in an interview published yesterday that the dam has literally cut the Yangtze River at its waist, which will naturally have an impact on the area's geology and weather conditions.
Imperfect, because the dam cannot be the single most important factor behind the rare droughts, as Lu observed. "We cannot attribute the many problems facing the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the dam only," Lu said. "The massive local construction of high-rise buildings and the massive diversion of water (for local construction) are also to blame, aren't they?"
Indeed, droughts have hit Yueyang City since 2001, before the Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2006. The People's Daily reported last week that most of Yueyang's reservoir water went to agricultural irrigation until 1985, when 80,000 urban residents began to drink from those reservoirs. Now, the reservoirs, with no significant increase in capacity, have to serve more than 600,000 urban residents. In the next five years, those reservoirs will have to support 1 million urban residents.
Now, every night, I play Xiao Xiang Shui Yun to feel the power and pulse of the vast waters that inspired great musicians in the past. But once away from the seven strings of my guqin, I see the power of modern bulldozers bent on destroying rivers, lakes and mountains.
Non-smokers need to work together
Once again, Shanghai's well-known Yuanyuan Restaurant has defended smokers in violation of public bans on smoking.
I went to the restaurant on Xingguo Road with some friends on Sunday only to find some men and women belching smoke under a couple of "no smoking" signs.
I asked restaurant clerks to intervene, but they gave me a cold shoulder, saying they would do nothing about smokers. I then asked why they had "no smoking" signs in the restaurant. The clerks lowered their heads, saying nothing. I asked if I could dial 110 for police, and the answer was silence.
In contempt of the smokers and the clerks, my friends and I left before we took our seats and ordered anything. It reminded me of a similar scene during my last visit to the restaurant last year: smoke billowing under a huge "no smoking" sign.
That time I reluctantly sat near the smokers. But not this time. You can err once, but not twice. Non-smokers like me will no longer patronize that restaurant if it continues to allow smokers to puff away to the detriment of us all.
Yuanyuan is not alone. Jiefang Daily reported last month that many restaurants on Nanjing Road E. and Changshou Road accommodated smokers in disregard of their own "no smoking" signs.
To all non-smokers out there, I say unite and boycott these restaurants.
Now, nearly 800 years later, few musicians would be so inspired to write such a song. The same vast waters, mainly around Dongting Lake, have dwindled drastically due to rare droughts. Nearly 200,000 of the 660,000 residents of Yueyang City at the heart of the lake area are suffering from an acute shortage of drinking water, People's Daily reported last week.
Like the Dongting Lake area, many other regions along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have witnessed the worst droughts in 60 years, China News Service reported yesterday. These rare droughts lead many Chinese to ask if the Three Gorges Dam is to blame - a valid but not perfect question.
Valid, because the dam project has altered nature to a certain extent. Lu Yaoru, a geological expert, told the Oriental Morning Post in an interview published yesterday that the dam has literally cut the Yangtze River at its waist, which will naturally have an impact on the area's geology and weather conditions.
Imperfect, because the dam cannot be the single most important factor behind the rare droughts, as Lu observed. "We cannot attribute the many problems facing the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the dam only," Lu said. "The massive local construction of high-rise buildings and the massive diversion of water (for local construction) are also to blame, aren't they?"
Indeed, droughts have hit Yueyang City since 2001, before the Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2006. The People's Daily reported last week that most of Yueyang's reservoir water went to agricultural irrigation until 1985, when 80,000 urban residents began to drink from those reservoirs. Now, the reservoirs, with no significant increase in capacity, have to serve more than 600,000 urban residents. In the next five years, those reservoirs will have to support 1 million urban residents.
Now, every night, I play Xiao Xiang Shui Yun to feel the power and pulse of the vast waters that inspired great musicians in the past. But once away from the seven strings of my guqin, I see the power of modern bulldozers bent on destroying rivers, lakes and mountains.
Non-smokers need to work together
Once again, Shanghai's well-known Yuanyuan Restaurant has defended smokers in violation of public bans on smoking.
I went to the restaurant on Xingguo Road with some friends on Sunday only to find some men and women belching smoke under a couple of "no smoking" signs.
I asked restaurant clerks to intervene, but they gave me a cold shoulder, saying they would do nothing about smokers. I then asked why they had "no smoking" signs in the restaurant. The clerks lowered their heads, saying nothing. I asked if I could dial 110 for police, and the answer was silence.
In contempt of the smokers and the clerks, my friends and I left before we took our seats and ordered anything. It reminded me of a similar scene during my last visit to the restaurant last year: smoke billowing under a huge "no smoking" sign.
That time I reluctantly sat near the smokers. But not this time. You can err once, but not twice. Non-smokers like me will no longer patronize that restaurant if it continues to allow smokers to puff away to the detriment of us all.
Yuanyuan is not alone. Jiefang Daily reported last month that many restaurants on Nanjing Road E. and Changshou Road accommodated smokers in disregard of their own "no smoking" signs.
To all non-smokers out there, I say unite and boycott these restaurants.
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