In the evening of April 11, as the wind blew harder and harder, the capital city
of Beijin finally, as long anticipated, saw the first sandstorm of the spring season, and the ancient city was thoroughly covered by the heavy dust. The city
dwellers of all kinds excitedly flocked into the streets to enjoy the unique spring view of the northern China.
Despite the small-scale dusty weather since the approaching of this spring, large-scale storms had hardly arrived until Apr 11. According to the centural weather broadcasting bureau, with the striking growth in wind force and regional coverage, the April 11 storm has so far been the biggest one in the northern areas of our country. The unprecedented sandstorm is said to stay for two or three days, so lovers of nature and dust should try their best not to miss it.
Sandstorms in northern areas of China boast a long and splendid history. According to those who are specialized, the poem "Leaving the Fortress" written by the
Tang Dinasty poet Wang Zhi Huang includes vivid discrptions about the storm. Unfortunately though, the key words "yellow sand" in the first sentence of the peom, "The yellow sand goes up into the clouds; and there's only a lone castle against a vast areas of mountains", has been distorted into "yellow river" and miscirculated in the long feudalistic period, and the gloriously depicted sandstorm-
related storm is almost buried in the dust of the hisotry! We are very lucky to
be able to see the breathtakingly beautiful view of the swishing sands and swooshing stones, and we sure take great pride in our country's all-scenic land as well as its mountains and rivers!
In the morning I, a journalist, first visited the Club For The Elderly in the eastern areas of the city. A few old men wearing respirators were doing TaiJi exercise, and a few were doing some handwritings in a room that was pervasive with Chinese-ink smell. Noticing my presence, a calligrapher gladly wrote down his masterpiece, which read "The castle is happily greeting the flying sands".
I could readily tell the delight in his artistically forceful and contagious handwritings! The other elderly men all came up to tell me how glad and lucky they were to be able to see such a sandstorm when they were still alive.
After the interview with the old men, I proceeded to my next destination, the construction sites of Olympic Game buildings. On my way to the sites I enjoyed a
conversation with the taxi driver, Lao Du, who told me with excitement that he
had much better than average business during the sand-flying days, and that he
wouldn't get annoyed by the rises of oil price as long as the sandstorm would stay and last. He said all the taxi drivers in the city had even repainted their
cars into yellow, indicating how the sands had become a unqiue view of BeiJin city. "Every time we greeted foreign tourists, we would introduce the sandstorm of BeiJin as the Nineth Attraction, along with the famous YanJin Eight Attractions. And we are planning to get some cultured guys to rename the BeiJin sandstorm
, which, after all, sounds too vulgar," said the man.
It took a few hours of car ride to get to the Olympic Game building's contruction sites, most of which were situated beside the SangHuan District. You should watch their smoke! Only when taking a short break would they stop to enjoy the spectacular view that sandstorm had brought about. Not wanting to disturb them too much, I decided not to stay longer than I had to. During the brief interview
, Xiao Cao, from He Nan Province, said to me that he was planning to bring his wife and children to BeiJin, to let them see the "big house" that they had built,
and if lucky enough, to watch the Olympic Game for a while. The top priority,
though, was to let them see BeiJin's peculiar sandstorm.
In the afternoon I visited the local tertiary school. On the campus of P University, I came across carefully and tightly wrapped female students from time to time. One told me that it was her first spent-in-BeiJin spring, and that
she hadn't seen any of these sandstorms before in where she came from, so she's
really thrilled to see the sand that was pervasive in the sky. In the library I
interviewed a male student, who was reading a newspaper. Putting down People's
Daily, the boy seriously expressed his perspective on sandstorms: "Sandstorms are a part of nature. Those having long been living in metropolitan areas have gone far and far away from nature. The sudden offering from the sky is a golden
opportunity for us to get closer to nature. Have you ever wondered -- when you
inhale the fragrance of the earth -- where these sands are from and where they are going? It is advisable that everybody should stop their busy paces, and calm
down to meditate about these questions."
I made an interview with the famed environmentologist, Professor L, at T University. The expert claimed that when people appreciated the beautiful views of sandstorms they tended to ignore the influence sandstorms have had on the natural environment. According to their long-term observation, sandstorms purify the air
, and are able to restrain global warming resulting from greenhouse effect, and
it has been confirmed by the research from overseas.
The last destination I visited was BeiJin's suburban areas. It was a face-to-face on-the-spot interview. Having been a widely well-known poverty-stricken village, Village S, under the guidance of the village head, have well developed the
local tourism resources, and have accomplished upgrading the structure of the local agriculture industry, talking off the hat of "underprivileged village". Through the recent "study of the advancement of the party" among Communist Party members, the village committee has greatly widened their horizons and became more
open-minded and brought up the strategy of "having sands, living on sands". They plan to convert the golf court, which has unprofitably operated for the recent years, into a sandstorm-themed tourism resort, hoping to develop S Village into the First Village Of Sandstorm Tourism in BeiJin's suburban area.
By the time I had finished the whole day's interview, I was sand-covered all over. The swirling sands in the sky looked like a unique clothing of spring on BeiJin. With all the flying sand, the Great Wall, winding amidst the boundless mountains, looked even more splendid and spectacular; and the city appeared holy grander with all the lights starting to glitter. The ancient city, capital of BeiJin, appeared more vivid and vibrant with the harbinger of spring, the sandstorm
.
Finished, :D and for fun only,
Pan.
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The Original, a Chinese version:
http://club.mypda.com.cn/sp.asp?tid=95078&bcp=2&loc=2
