A Simple Solar Spectacle

Today there was the historic total solar eclipse that was seen over many parts of Asia.

It started in India before moving to Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and then China and Japan.

Here in Beijing we should have been able to see a partial eclipse, but the sky was such a thick humid gray soupy mixture of pollutants, clouds and dust that we couldn't see anything.

Shanghai didn't have much luck either as it was raining.

But places like Hangzhou had a very clear view and CCTV broadcast pictures of the sun almost covered up by the moon, leaving a bright corona shining around a black disc.

The TV network went crazy on this once-in-a-lifetime event, with correspondents in various places in China who tried to interview people with high-tech equipment, but they themselves were too busy to talk, trying to get ready for the big event.

Each CCTV reporter wore a yellow polo shirt, probably to signify the sun, but really, that colour is the worst one for Chinese people to wear...

Anyway, the media tried to warn people not to look directly into the sun and so the sale of special glasses were selling like hotcakes. How well those eye wear really protected people's corneas we'll just have to see a few years from now.

If there is a spike in people going blind in the near future, we'll know why.

Also local governments had to prepare, turning on lights when the eclipse happened, and warning people not to panic. One city called Tongling in Anhui Province, and considered one of the prime places to see the eclipse, even prepared a special plaza for residents and visitors to watch the event.

Chinese media were hailing this as "China's eclipse", as it covered many parts of the country, meaning a good chunk of the 1.3 billion population would see this event which lasted six minutes and comes around once every 500 years.

People here were so excited by the natural spectacle, that some of us foreigners felt their enthusiasm was overboard.

A friend of mine got an email greeting from a colleague saying, "Happy solar eclipse day!"

Is it so easy to make Chinese people happy? Maybe the central government can figure out a way to shoot rockets into the air to manipulate more eclipses so that its people will forget about all the corruption, unemployment and its authoritarianism....

In the late afternoon the skies in Beijing went dark. Was there another eclipse?

Rain finally fell, cutting the humidity, bringing cooler temperatures and clearing the skies just before I went home.

If only the eclipse was tomorrow, then I could have had a decent chance to see some of it.