Korean Job Discussion Forums

[noelinkorea]

Ooooh - it is just pea soup outside today. Gross. Look at the cars. Disgusting. I have lived here four years, and I think this is the worst I have ever seen it in Seoul...a few years back it was bad too, and I got real sick then. Not heading out today.

[JongnoGuru]

Yes, I've seen it. I made two fairly short trips outside today, and each time I could see it, smell it, taste it, and even feel it as a sort of dry mist on my face as I was riding the motorbike. Quite bad. People usually translate it as "Yellow Dust", but I think sand may be closer to the reality. I mean, I've never felt the grit of _dust_ crunching between my teeth the way this stuff does.

For years I used to enjoy spending springtime in Korea and taking holidays during the summer to escape the heat & humidity. Because the Yellow Dust/Sand/Nasty Grit has gotten so bad in recent years (or so it seems to me) I've given serious thought to reversing that arrangement. Just to reduce by that much whatever long-term harmful effects it may be having. Unfortunately, the portion of work that requires me to be physically present in Korea in the spring-to-summer months is increasing, not decreasing. Which is and .

[coolsage]

Even up here in the outback the stuff has made its presence felt. Leaden sky, scratchy throat, tickly nose, sneezing and wheezing all day. Vit C and Tiger Balm have taken the edge off the symptoms. I'm told by a K-prof here that China, Japan and Korea have mounted a massive tree-planting campaign at the fringes of the Gobi Desert to attempt to halt or slow the encroachment of said desert. So far it doesn't seem to be working. And when those prevailing westerlies begin to blow in spring, and the dust picks up the heavy-metal spew from the Chinese economic 'miracle', this is just not a nice place to be. I'm praying for fan-death to take me now. Unfortunately, it's not warm enough yet to gas up the fan.

[pet lover]

Even the dogs are not wanting to go out to use the bathroom after being out in it this morning. Nasty nasty stuff. When I checked out that link I got from someone here, I was horrified to see the spikes in every color for today.

[Harpeau]

Just got back from in-line skating. Thank God I had a mask! Visibility was terrible!

[rapier]

This is definitely the worst I've ever seen it in 3 years. visibility at about 800 yards along the coast here.

[jinju]

Gives me another reason to hate China.

[flotsam]

I am sitting in front of my laptop nursing a Heineken and trying to forget...

It was my full intent to start the same thread as the OP as soon as I got home. I have been here on and off since 1997 and I have never seen ANYTHING like this. After 5 hours tooling about Seoul (mostly indoors, mind you) I am stuffed-up, worn-out, and pissed-off.

If this keeps up, Korea will be in a world of hurt in a few more years. Though whoever produces those surgical masks is going to make a killing: I will be buying my first tomorrow.

Maybe a Hello Kitty one.

And when I turn the label over, it will read "Made in China". Bastards.

[weatherman]

Once about six years ago(?) in Gwangju, I saw it worse, but not by much. I engjoy it, if for only it gives the chance to see the landscape bathed in a yellow glow, that makes even the familiar seem strange, new and different. Though I now have a tickle in my throat, that even a few beers won't tackle, the day was worth it.

[Real Reality]

[JongnoGuru]

When it looks like this...



be sure to wear this...


Pretty snazzy, this New Asian Century.

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

"APRIL is the cruellest month"

"I will show you fear in a handful of dust"

-- T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Sparkles*_*

[mithridates]

Hee hee, I'm in Qingdao and we have no yellow dust. When does it end? I'm back in two days so maybe I'll get hit with it anyway.

[flotsam]

These two are of the stuff having moved over Korea and heading toward Japan. Look at the first "A" to compare the size of the peninsula to the size of the cloud. Bloody hell.

[Xerxes]

Isn't the whole thing with yellow dust an urban myth? I had naively thought in years past, but not this year after seeing the radar images of the mysteriously regionalized precipitation activity unlike any storm activity of the other cloud masses. Ok, I'll give it that.

But what of this crap that the yellow dust causes (yellow ) fever and coughing and wheezing and diseases of all stripe and color? I agree that if you have particles borne in the air, you will suffer respiratory symptoms, but that it causes some diseases? From the heavy metal in the Chinese soil? (Sounds like a metal band title track: "Hea-vy Met-al in the Chinese Soil") Come now. (although I am suffering from the worst flu in my life coughing up brain and lung matter with every hack and having to wear a mask in class to keep the disease particles I spew IN my person).

Ha ha! I live dangerously: I venture outside unmasked and nude scoffing at the passers by gaping at my brazen foolhardy!