As if it were all a dream

Next Monday, it will be one month since the special Olympic-era traffic and pollution rules came to an end in Beijing. Through most of the last ten days, the skies and air have been spectacularly clear and beautiful in town. Here, blue skies are reflected in office windows in the Dongdan area a few days ago:



Today - oh boy. Traffic like the bad old days, and same for the smoky skies. Let us hope this is an aberration, rather than the new (and old) normal.