May30

SkyFord: City of Pollution

by tdaxp on May 30, 2006 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Beijing 2006

The final segment of my Tianjin Sentiments (perhaps a fitting companion to another blogger’s “Balkan Memories“?) is of the pollution in Tianjin. Tianjin is composed of two characters — Tian meaning Heavenly or Sky, Jin meaning Ford. In a previous post I explained that I would translate Tian as “Heavenly” for beautiful things, and as “Sky” for more prosaic uses. Thus, this post on the pollution in Tianjin discusses contamination in Sky Ford.

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The pollution in Skyford is everywhere. Our local guides explained that it was the result of the building boom that builds new offices, malls, and apartments everywhere. Certainly there was a lot of construction in Tianjin, as there was in Beijing.


Some of the power plants in Tianjin clearly gave off a blackish smoke


Moore cooling plants, these as scene from the train (metro)


At the Port of Tianjin I saw more trucks than I have ever seen, in my life.


Riding in a taxi in this is oddly relaxing: as you’ve already forfeited your life, there is nothing to do but wait.


A Chinese wears a mask (as I did) while gazing out at what was once the Pacific Ocean


To the smog-chocked horizon and beyond, industrial salt ponds grew on the reclaimed land. Plants did not.


Industrial machinery helps process the salt


Salt Town


The ocean was brown. The cause of that was, among other things…


… and oil refinery. The refinery is much, much closer than it looks. The deadly smog makes everything look hazy and far away, and this part of Tianjin had the worst smog of anywhere in China I’ve seen.


While the Ocean is dead, the port lives. The amount of shipping containers was Cyclopean, if not Lovecraftian


View of death from the former deathship, the Soviet ACC Kiev.


This was on the LSD-like riverfront of Skyford, near the strawberry house and waterfall. Ugly beyond description.

Tianjin, a tdaxp series.

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