The last few days have seen Nanjing blessed with suspiciously blue skies and clean air, as rumours surface we are in for a big visit from the man himself.
December 13th. The Nanjing veterans amongst us recognise the date as one of the darkest times in local history; the Nanjing Massacre. While each year sees a number of commemorative efforts including the air raid sirens, which make our hair stand on end, this year is not just any other year. This year is special.
One might wonder what exactly makes the 77th anniversary of this dark day worth more than the usual attention. Reason number one is that this is the first year that the Massacre has been officially declared a public holiday (which ironically falls on a Saturday), in what one might see as symbolic of the strained Sino-Japanese relationship. In addition, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum has, since 18th November, been undergoing “maintenance and remodelling” and will open its doors to the public once again on the day of commemoration.
With four days left until D-Day, the city is filled with rumours that the father of the nation, the Xi himself, will be gracing us with his presence for the big day.
An unnamed source, who has close contact with the construction industry, told Nanjing Expat that building sites had been shut down for the past few days due to an upcoming visit from Xi Dada, while Chinese media colleagues of Nanjing Expat have further corroborated the rumour.
Officially, the shut down of construction is related to the “big smog of 2013”, as the beginning of December last year saw a week of truly abhorrent air conditions and 2.5PM values that would have scared any chain smoker. The worsening of air quality throughout the latter months of the year seems to be a recurring problem, due in no small part to farmers burning their rice straw in order to create ash, which they use as fertilizer.
The burning of the straw is responsible for approximately 10 percent of Shanghai’s pollution, according to the city’s government website, hence the obvious conclusion that the Nanjing figure must be about the same. In Shanghai, where the practice was completely banned in October in what is being dubbed the country’s “strictest protection law”, police helicopters patrolled the skies around the metropole to expose any illegal actions on the farmer’s parts.
Nanjing, on the other hand, has seen its own anti-pollution measures, nicknamed “Youth Olympic Mode”, hit the construction, transport and heavy industries. This year’s environmental protection plan for Nanjing and twelve other cities in the area has brought severe restrictions to a range of different sectors. In the first phase of the plan, from 17th November until 5th December, the majority of factories with the highest pollution rates in the area had to restrict production, affecting the productivity of petrochemical, iron and steel enterprises.
Phase Two of the plan was initiated on 6th December and saw a tightening of measures, with the largest polluting companies having to stop production altogether. As a result of the restrictions, six major thermoelectric power generation businesses’ output declined 30 percent compared with the same period last year.
Furthermore, the measures are restricting emissions from vehicles as Phase Two is asking the government to do their part by cutting the allowed use of official vehicles for government and other institutions by 30 percent. In addition, all four-wheelers with yellow plates (e.g. buses and trucks), high-emission cars and heavy vehicles have been told to stay off the roads. High-emissions cars from outside of the city are not allowed to enter until the clampdown is officially over on 17th December. To make sure the roads are all ship-shape for the big memorial day and to get rid of the settling dust left over from recent construction, street cleaning efforts have also been stepped up considerably.
Finally, from 6th December onwards, all construction has been halted with the exception of the new metro line number three, important municipal projects and of course the Massacre Memorial hall. In total, over 2,000 construction sites in the good city of Ning will lie abandoned for a total of 11 days.
However, the regulations are not necessarily finding support with the general public. Construction workers on Jiangxin Zhou decided to strike against the enforced strike and continued construction in an act of defiance. After it was discovered that the “most awesome construction site”, as it was dubbed by local media due to its resistance, had disobeyed official orders, they now face repercussions in form of possible fines and being blacklisted.
It seems though, that a majority of sites were happy to follow suit. After all, who could refuse the argument that it “might” be for the big Xi? We will have to wait a few more days to discover whether the current breath of fresh air is sweeping through Nanjing due to the imminent arrival of the country’s most powerful political leader or simply in an effort to prevent last year’s catastrophe, which turned into yet more proof for international observers that China’s environment verges on an end of days scenario. Either way, let’s just take a deep breath while the dust settles.
