smog

It's the most constant feature of life in Beijing, at least since we've been here (and we have it on good authority it's always like this).
The air is usually a thick, grey soup. Yesterday it was thick enough you could barely make out buildings more than a block or two away. It's been the first thing we do each morning - look out the window to check whether we can see the building across the courtyard. If we can, it's a day worth being outside. If we can't, we go back to bed.

One of the few benefits to the smog are the sunsets. Sometimes the sun turns red around 3 o'clock, making the sunset about four hours long. This would be the place to be for a solar eclipse - by the afternoon, you can stare straight at the sun, no problem.