황사 (hwang sa)

what the hell is 황사 and why is it taking up a headline on my damned site? well, 황사 is an ugly phenomenon that afflicts korea and some other country to korea's east (um, that would be japan, for the geographically ignorant) every april. i'd like to be diplomatic and not blame it on the chinese (who live to korea's west, for the geography-impaired), but i cannot be diplomatic when it comes to the chinese and, besides, china IS culpable for this.

the english translation for 황사 is variously labeled yellow dust, yellow sand, or yellow wind, depending on your dictionary or your korean friends, but not, thankfully, yellow snow (now that would be something to get pissed about, in both senses of the word). personally, yellow wind is the most salacious because what this phenomenon involves is sand from the deserts of china (namely, the gobi and taklamakan deserts) that are carried east from inner china to immerse korea and japan in a haze of yellowness.

it's as if the whole sky has hepatitis and is continuing to guzzle vodka like it's water;

it's as if everything under the sky has powdered itself with horrendous yellow makeup in an effort to entice potential suitors whom all have liver problems;

it's as if a giant is in the sky banging together two giant-sized erasers full of yellow chalk.

it covers everything and then immerses everything else in its yellow nastiness.

these pictures have not been doctored (as they often are on this web site) and are not always of the same place taken in clear weather and then taken in this sickly, hazy yellow nuclear winter-like starkness, but these are before and after photos taken in relatively similar places, especially in the mountains.

this past weekend was the worst it's been in four years, according to the news, and it really was like something from a post-nuclear nightmare. not something one wants to put on the tourist pamphlet and not something the chinese ever admit responsibility for, but it's all here for everyone to see and breathe. korea and japan continue to invest money in their respective countries to provide shelter from it and into china itself to prevent the dust-up from being so bad, but with the china's continued breakneck speed of consumption, growth, and pollution, nothing is lessening the effects of this asphyxiating yellow wind, except, perhaps, a frantic, desperate chug of yellow snow the morning after a night of soju...