Goodbye-nan/ Pollution Watch

It’s our last night in the little province of Hainan. Tomorrow morning we’ll fly back up to the Northern Chill of Harbin. I have enjoyed my stay here for the most part. I ate lots of fresh fruit, most of it star-shaped, which we bought locally so it tasted fantastic. Unfortunately, my parting gift from Hainan is a lovely little fluveneir. That’s right, I got sick. Everyone has a few theories as to why I’m under the weather. For one, I didn’t dress for the cold evenings. I imagines 30 degree heat day and night, but that’s not necessarily the case. It get’s a bit nippy once in a while, especially out on the water in the Love Boat. Also, for some reason, none of the hotels we stayed at offered heated rooms – I guess that’s just an extravagance in Hainan.

I have another theory. As you may or may not know, I’ve been monitoring the pollution levels somewhat during my stay in China. It involves taking photos of the city skylines, comparing smog levels, plus testing the quality of the air, using my own lungs as the litmus paper. I’ve taken into account the different climates too. For example, in Harbin it’s 20 below, so you don’t necessarily taste the air pollution as much. You can see the smog up there in the sky, but the cold air probably crystallizes the smog molecules to the point that it goes mainly unnoticed by us. I’m not sure he exact technical jargon here, but I think the cold makes you notice it less. Here in Hainan, with the much warmer climate, the muggy, sticky air probably makes the pollution feel twice as bad as it really is.

So here I lay in a cold hotel bed with my glass of hot water and my jar of vitamin C tablets, which I bought at the “Drug Supermarket” in Sanya. The pills were imported from he States – I’m still hesitant to cross into the netherworld that is Chinese medicine unless I absolutely have to. I’m sure my whiteness would reject the drugs like a kidney transplant gone wrong. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I cant wait to get back to the -20 degree temperature. I know it sounds strange, but I gots to chill, so the air won’t make me feel so ill.