PanZhiHua

We left the beautiful mountainous region of Lijiang to head to Chengdu via Panzhihua by bus. When we left Lijiang, the sun was just rising above the mountains and gorges and people were just starting their day, brushing their teeth by the edge of the road. It made me think about how beautiful China can be. Ahhh... And then we ended up in Panzhihua. Panzhihua's outskirts is the biggest dump I have ever seen. The skyline is made up entirely of smokestacks, including some the size of Rhode Island. You can barely see 100 feet in front of you because of all the smog. All the buildings are black because of the pollution. The only thing I saw in the area were factories, dump trucks, and shops which cater to the maintenance of dump trucks (tires, repair, washing--fruitless endeavor that it is). If there ever were a town in need of a Spare the Air Day, it's this one. And one every day for the next ten years. Unbelievably, they had a sign up which said (in Chinese), "Panzhihua is our home. We are all responsible for the quality of the environment." I'll admit that the city center was cleaner.