Institute of Atmospheric Physics
The Institute of Atmospheric Physics is perhaps the most prestigious atmospheric institute in China. It is also one of the best in atmospheric Chemistry. Its current director is my old friend Wang Mingxing, whom I had not seen for many years before this visit. It was a pleasure to become reacquainted and catch up on matters since we last met.
The conference room where we discussed various matters in the morning.
The part of my afternoon lecture that dealt with the new graphical technique. Kelly spoke next.
The fun at this institute began at the very end of the day. As we were leaving the building, either Kelly or I made some remark about their beautiful meteorological tower, which is instrumented and more than 300 m high. They immediately asked if we would like to go up it. Kelly, who is quite afraid of heights, started to demur immediately, but it was too late. They sent for the elevator operator, and within minutes we were piled into the little compartment and starting upward. Although the tower looks wide in this photo, it feels VERY narrow and fragile while traveling upward, caused in part by the fully glassed compartment. You start upward with a jerk and see the ground disappearing rapidly underneath you. Pretty soon any acrophobia kicks in, and you know that you are in for quite a ride! I have mild acrophobia, and it bothered me, too. Kelly insisted that we go no higher than 100 meters, and I secretly agreed. When there, we stopped with another jerk, confirmed that we were still alive, and gingerly climbed out onto the platform. Kelly, who fears few things in life, was in near shock. You can see her expressions on the next two photos.
"I don't care what you say—I will NEVER open my eyes!"
"I will never...I will never...AAAAA!! My acrophobologist told me there would be days like this!"
To see the views of Beijing we got on this extremely clear day, check out the next three pictures. Note also the pervasive haze, which was considerably less than on other days in Beijing. Later we would come to realize that most of eastern China has haze just like this on most summer days.
At the end of the body of water in the bottom photo begins a preserved section of the old city wall, which from this height appears like an elongated mound. Note also the shadow of the tower falling right on the middle of the water. From this vantage point, we could also see clearly how high-rises are transforming Beijing's profile. One gets the initial impression that the city has only two heights of buildings—very low and very high. Lastly, these photos show that from this altitude one can begin to see the top of the haze layer. I would guess that it wasn't far above the top of the meteorological tower. Nothing holds down haze as much as a strong inversion layer does.
To offer a better sense of the feeling from the tower, I leaned over Kelly's shoulder and pointed the camera down. Just above the railing is an open-air market. Note the construction on the far right.
One of the guys photographing a smiling Guoshun. In his shoes, I would be smiling because the tower hadn't fallen over yet!
And yes, yours truly was there, too. Note the slightly forced smile and the two-hand grip on the railings.