So I’ve got it…the China/India cough. Sometimes its inevitable, other times not. About mid-way through my week in India, I started developing a sore throat and a cough when I’d go to sleep. Although the air quality seemed OK at first glance, spending any time outside in the afternoon quickly lead to a feeling of being poisoned by us thin blooded foreigners. Most of these Indians spend the entire day outdoors, and a large proportion sleep on the streets, without refuge from the noise, heat or pollution. I’ve had this before and usually it is gone in a day or two upon return to a cleaner air environment. Kunming is usually clean enough to never develop the China cough, but one of the city’s new ambitious infrastructure projects is completely elevating the second ring road, which is now
closed for construction. So where are all the trucks to go? Well, right by our house where we’re staying for the summer. So this has its usual annoyances, loud horns, destroyed pavement, disrespect for traffic signals, one overturned coal truck that buried several pedestrians; but the biggest annoyance to me is the air quality. My cough won’t recover and who knows what kind of damage is occurring to the developing lungs of my children. We are often riding our bike on this road to get around the neighborhoods and huge black plumes of exhaust will come out of the truck exhaust pipes, right at ground level, mostly because of China’s high sulfur diesel fuel. When this happens, I tell the kids to “hold your breath”. Unfortunately, I look on the horizon and see the familiar haze as we move forward through the toxic ambient air. This is the common condition in many larger Chinese cities, but Kunming’s air quality has always been quite a bit better than most. Well, my India cough persists in China and unfortunately, to avoid inhaling the toxic fumes, you can’t hold your breath forever.
So I’ve got it…the China/India cough. Sometimes its inevitable, other times not. About mid-way through my week in India, I started developing a sore throat and a cough when I’d go to sleep. Although the air quality seemed OK at first glance, spending any time outside in the afternoon quickly lead to a feeling of being poisoned by us thin blooded foreigners. Most of these Indians spend the entire day outdoors, and a large proportion sleep on the streets, without refuge from the noise, heat or pollution. I’ve had this before and usually it is gone in a day or two upon return to a cleaner air environment. Kunming is usually clean enough to never develop the China cough, but one of the city’s new ambitious infrastructure projects is completely elevating the second ring road, which is now
closed for construction. So where are all the trucks to go? Well, right by our house where we’re staying for the summer. So this has its usual annoyances, loud horns, destroyed pavement, disrespect for traffic signals, one overturned coal truck that buried several pedestrians; but the biggest annoyance to me is the air quality. My cough won’t recover and who knows what kind of damage is occurring to the developing lungs of my children. We are often riding our bike on this road to get around the neighborhoods and huge black plumes of exhaust will come out of the truck exhaust pipes, right at ground level, mostly because of China’s high sulfur diesel fuel. When this happens, I tell the kids to “hold your breath”. Unfortunately, I look on the horizon and see the familiar haze as we move forward through the toxic ambient air. This is the common condition in many larger Chinese cities, but Kunming’s air quality has always been quite a bit better than most. Well, my India cough persists in China and unfortunately, to avoid inhaling the toxic fumes, you can’t hold your breath forever.
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