纽约时报:北京空气污染影响不大

Enoch

作者觉得空气污染没有想象的那么严重，还有中国人骑自行车，普遍座位放得太低，而且不带安全帽....

[纽约时报 8月18日 英文报道]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/1 ... ing.html?ref=sports

An Artful Jogger in Beijing: The Pollution Is Not an Issue

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By GINA KOLATA
Published: August 16, 2008

BEIJING — Almost everything I was told about running in Beijing was wrong. My clothes would turn gray from pollution. I would be coughing and wheezing, hacking out black phlegm. I would never see any Chinese runners. I should just concentrate on getting some miles in — there was no way I would ever be able to maintain a reasonable pace. Or maybe I should just give up and spend my time on treadmills in the gym.
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My goal, my coach Tom Fleming said, is just to run six or seven miles every day. I can worry about longer distances and pace when I get home.

So far, I have more than met that goal, and while these certainly are not good conditions for preparing to run a marathon — too hot and humid — they are not much worse than what I am used to on summer days in Princeton, N.J., where I live. If anything, it is easier to run fast here because it is so flat in Beijing. Pollution has not been an issue or, at least, if the air is polluted, it has not bothered me.

I arrived in Beijing last Sunday afternoon and went for a six-mile run Tuesday morning. One of my colleagues suggested running in loops around the Media Village where I am staying. It is a newly built complex with 14 buildings of 32 stories and 2 of 11 stories, and it holds 6,000 journalists. The young and ever-smiling staff greet us as we come and go from the buildings, hold open the doors, and say, “Have a nice day.” The elevator has a list of nine admonitions printed on its wall. And the place is guarded by young men who stand at attention night and day.

After a few loops, I got bored and decided to leave the complex. But when I went to the exit that I take to get on a news media bus to the Olympics, the guards and the cheerful staff who scan us and put our belongings through metal detectors told me I was not allowed to leave. I went back to running loops. Toward the end of the run, a guard, sitting on the back of a golf cart, pointed a video camera at me.

Not a good start for running in Beijing.

But after that first day, the situation improved. I ran the next day at 6 a.m. with a colleague from The Times, Charlie Competello, who showed me another exit from the Media Village — the exit, it turns out, that we were supposed to use if we were not taking the bus to events. We ran along a four-lane boulevard lined by a bike path and sidewalk. The road had elaborate and meticulously maintained landscaping on its median strip and a large park, locked and guarded, across the street.

Now I have a routine. Go out at 6 or so with Charlie or by myself. As I ran, I noticed a few things about the people who are out early in the morning on those roads. Quite a few seem to be walking for exercise. Too many are walking the small dogs that seem to be in favor here — and no one uses a leash.

There are people riding bikes for transportation. But cycling, as we know it in the United States, does not seem to be popular here. Every single cyclist that I have seen has the bike seat too low. I have not seen any road bikes, no clipless pedals, no cycling clothes. Although I must have seen hundreds of cyclists by now, I saw only one person wearing a helmet — and even he had his seat too low.

Before I came here, I was told that Chinese people do not run. But I have seen a handful of Chinese joggers. Those I saw were moving slowly and no one wore the sort of light, sweat-wicking clothes that are so common in the United States. Chinese joggers seem to favor knee-length shorts and collared T-shirts.

There were a few exceptions. One day, I saw an older man jogging while dressed in gray trousers and a gray-and-white-striped collared T-shirt. Another day, I saw a young woman jogging while wearing khaki slacks and a long-sleeve jersey. An older man jogged slowly on the boulevard instead of on the bike path and the sidewalk next to the road. I tried to ask him why he was running on the busy road, but he did not speak English and to my regret, I do not speak Chinese.
More Articles in Sports » A version of this article appeared in print on August 17, 2008, on page SP6 of the New York edition.