ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
I thank the authors of C&EN for their continuing coverage of chemistry in China. While I waited years to travel to China, I found C&EN to be a good source of chemical and nonchemical insights about that amazing nation and its people. I recently returned from the long-awaited trip and noted the article "In Pursuit of Clean Water" and its discussion of pollution of the Pearl River (C&EN, Jan. 4, page 14). Having spent several days near a small portion of the Pearl River on Shamian Island in Guangzhou, I can offer some additional images of the river:
• A scenic, tree-lined long park/pathway along the Pearl River in parts of Guangzhou busy with pedestrians and a smattering of food carts
• A river confluence near Shamian Island where there are nightly spotlight, laser, and music shows that attract both land-based spectators and tour boats
• Mornings on that same confluence, where multiple boats and people remove the previous evening's accumulated debris from the river
• Parts of the river (especially the more stagnant narrow channel along the back side of the island) smelling and looking like a sewer drain
• A couple of men swimming in the river near a bridge where the homeless sleep, hanging on to life rings and beverage coolers as they bob in a boat's wake
As Guangzhou readies itself to host the Asian games this November, I hope that it can clean up the chemistry of the Pearl River as well as it has begun to clean up its cosmetic appearance.
Dean Campbell
Peoria, Ill.
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on X