Definetly a “Page 2” rant here.
- Gua Feng/刮风: “Scraping, shaving, blowing wind.”
- Brian’s Translation: “Annoying + Gritty + Ugh.”
Every spring here we have about 25 – 40 days of high seasonal winds – and consequently big ol’ sandstorms. It’s really cool to see a sand storm for the first time; a sentiment that wears off 3 minutes into your first sand storm. Unless you are that 0.0001% of planet earth that enjoys eating sand, this time of year can be difficult. Just part of life in China – a part of China that I won’t be missing in 30 days.
You see, China has this big pile of sand known to most as the Gobi Desert, which is basically a huge pile-o-sand that some giant dump truck left there thousands of years. Long story short, the construction project got cancelled, everyone went home, some Chinese folk named it and declared it a desert and camels moved in. The situation we are looking at now is this:
Lots of sand + Altitude + Changing winds = Sand in my mouth 24/7 for a straight month.
It’s a time of great tribulation (I’m exaggerating – it’s mildly annoying) – however, it is a time where I’m cleaning my glass constantly.
Every day around 2pm it kicks up and the locals run for cover – imagine a Godzilla movie. We live in a valley and so we can literally see it rolling through in a not-so-subtle way. By 4pm, on the worst days, it feels like 7pm and you start wondering if today will be the day that your windows actually rattle off their tracks. Today’s 刮风 was especially bad. I was outside buying some vegetables when I made a dash for home. Took these shots as pure reference from inside our apartment – the only good place to take these kinds of pictures.
