Beijing citizen Zou Yi's 365 days of photos of the Beijing TV building have stunned many, showing with crystal clarity how smog overshadows the city more than half of the year.
"There were a few really smoggy days before the 26th of January last year. I looked outside the window and saw the Beijing TV building in the smog, I took my first photo of it. I kept taking photos of it for about 5, 6 days until the first blue sky. I started recording it and updating it every day. After two months, when I put together 64 photos, I realized smog is constant and blue sky is a rarity. That's when I decided to try to do it for a year."
Zou Yi says although he had to change his life and work agenda to make sure one photo is taken at the same place and same time every day, it's been worth the effort.
"One picture is worth ten thousand words. This photo can tell stories itself. During mid-November last year, I asked friends around the globe to take photos of their weather, within 24 hours I received photos from 76 cities, including other cities in China. So vertically I can compare Beijing's pollution with itself overtime, horizontally I can compare China's air quality to other countries'. And we found the air quality in China is inferior."
Besides keeping the habit of taking a photo a day, Zou Yi takes his action against pollution further.
He never drives within the fourth ring of Beijing, and he has started an initiative called "Giant Goooo-go", collecting rubbish left by tourists at Jiankou Great Wall.
Zou Yi is also trying to organize his first seminar on educating people about the causes and harms of smog.
"Within two weeks, we'll have the first seminar. I just want to help the government to popularize the knowledge of smog and help the general public learn about how to cope with it. The photos are about observing and discovery, the Giant Goooo-go is about action, but the biggest issue is education."
Zou Yi also suggests that a non-profit organization focusing on smog should be set up by the government.
"it's lazy governance. All measures taken without going through legislation are unsustainable. Not only can it not solve any problems, it will create new problems. I suggest the government can help set up an NGO to maximise efforts from society."
Zou Yi says if we can fight pollution with the same determination of the government's anti-corruption campaign, smog will cease to be a problem in China in the very near future.
For CRI, I'm Ding Lulu.
