Dear Language Enthusiast,
Welcome to the Chinese Monthly, the
Internet newsletter from Transparent Language. In this
issue, we focus on one of today’s most important
issues: the environment. As we move into the new
millennium, the impact of modern society on the
environment is a key concern in China, as in countries
around the world. Examining how the people of China
view and address this critical issue offers
fascinating insights into the culture, and its
connection to China’s unique environment. I think
you’ll find this month’s article thought provoking, as
well as effective in building your language skills.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
In English:
Beijing has always been violently invaded and attacked by air-
borne sand and dust, so whenever a windstorm occurs sand and dust
fill the sky. There are times when it continues for several days
and the ground is then completely covered with a thick layer of
sand. Under such weather conditions people have to remain indoors
as much as possible, and if you risk going outdoors you have to
take care not to be hit by the trees the store signs, etc. that
are being blown down by the wind, and moreover you have to wear a
protective mask or veil. Since the sand can readily enter the
eyes and mouth, the respiratory systems and eyes of many people
are infected in this manner. In addition to the fact that
sandstorms cause such inconvenience in people’s lives, they also
influence agricultural production, transportation and shipping,
and other industries, and cause serious economic damage thereby.
A report by the Chinese Academy of Science has indicated that
this sand comes from the degraded pastureland and dry land of the
area around the deserts of Inner Mongolia. Records show that
during the 17th century there were from 0.3 to 1.0 sandstorms in
Inner Mongolia per year, but by 1990 the annual rate of
occurrence had risen to 3.0 to 5.0 times per year. At the same
time, the rate of occurrence of sandstorms in Beijing has also
increased, and the number of violent sandstorms that occurred
this spring in Beijing was more than three times the average for
the same period in the 1990s. Some have called the sandstorm that
occurred on April 10th the most serious such storm in 10 years.
Other than natural factors like aridity being the cause creating
such conditions, the fact that China’s ecological environment has
suffered damage is also a major source of this calamity.
Owing to the development of agriculture, the area of land
adversely affected by sand has gradually increased, and during
the 1950s and 1960s the land affected by sand expanded on average
by 1,600 square kilometers per year. By the 1990s, the area by
which this land was expanding had reached 2,500 square kilometers
per year. This kind of situation where the land is adversely
affected by sand is particularly serious in many regions upwind
from Beijing. Fengning City in Hebei Province and Duolun City in
Inner Mongolia lie to the north of Beijing, and in the last 50
years the population of these two cities has grown by a factor of
2 to 3 times. In order to obtain the resources needed to sustain
their livelihood, the inhabitants have engaged in excessive
cultivation of the land, pasturage of animals and tree-cutting,
with the result that vegetation and the topsoil have sustained
damage, and the sand layer below the earth is now exposed on the
ground and the ground is rapidly being subjected to the spread of
sand.
China has already noticed this problem, and has adopted remedial
measures. Currently there have been measures taken in response
such as the withdrawal of land from cultivation and pasturage and
its return to forestland and grassland in regions like Hebei
Province and Inner Mongolia. The other day the Chinese government
announced that it would invest more than 600,000,000 renminbi
[TN: Chinese currency, aka yuan] to control Beijing’s sandstorms
in the coming decade. Only by decreasing the damage caused by man
and restoring the natural environment will it be possible to hold
in check effectively the sources of the sand and dust and to
improve the problem fundamentally.
Tips for ChineseNow!
For a fun and effective way to build your vocabulary,
make a list of CheckWords as you read a Title, then
play Vocabulous! or Crosswords with that CheckWord
List.
You can set Vocabulous! or Crosswords to select words
of a specific part of speech. On the Select a Game
screen, click Part of Speech and choose the type of
word you want.
