Eco-damage: The road from Yingkou to Dalian

China vs the US: A look at lagging green investment

My internship working with OPV Tech, a company developing organic solar panels (DSSC) in the province of Liaoning, has really opened my eyes not only to this potential (and not far off) cheaper and cleaner replacement for silicon solar, but also to the environmental catastrophe that is occurring right now in China. The most amazing thing to see, especially as an American, is the difference in reasoning for avoiding green energy. Where Americans are still arguing about whether global warming is a reality, the Chinese can see the unmistakeable damage blotting out the skies and affecting their health on a daily basis. The will to change is there, but that change comes at a high cost to their inexorable progress forward into the first world. This contradictory situation they find themselves in lets them push off decreasing reliance on coal until they've reached first world status, ending up (ahead of, but) roughly where America is: investing excess capital in green with the majority still tied up in dirty energy.

On trips back and forth from the lab at Dalian University to the office in Yingkou, I saw evidence of this environmental damage firsthand:

The Coastal Plain

Taking the high speed rail from Dalian to Yingkou in the north eastern province of Liaoning was nothing short of dumbfounding. The smooth ride rumbles along at 200kmph (300kmph in summer) through one of the most desolate expanses of land I have ever imagined. You could see the horizon if the smog was not so thick. Images of bundled up babushkas exhaling clouds of frosty steam on a backdrop of smokestacks pumping coal into the air come to mind. But in THIS communist paradise the land is maybe not quite as frozen, but every inch COMPLETELY used. Leaving my camera in my bag the first go around, I made sure I got a few good shots on the way back, this time with my boss and driver to give thorough commentary on the scenery.

I live in the orange and white one...

Construction was stopped for winter on the
hundreds of new buildings we drove by

Big Ol' Boxes
The first things that caught my eye both ways were the frequent large groups of identical apartment complexes that dotted the barren landscape. Every one was completely empty, most still in construction missing windows and looking every bit little boxes from Weeds all grown up and Chinafied. So who's going to live in these big boxes? Workers of course.

How They Get Along
The area supports a few large industries including farming, coal mining, fisheries, and cement production for the large buildings to house all the workers for the farming, coal mining, and fisheries.


Although there was no evidence of any coal extraction, there were cement factories in the distance (no pics, sorry) pumping out billowing clouds of smoke and large chunks of land ripped out of the side of mountains (also no pics, maybe on the way back on monday) for cement making materials (and another use I'll talk about in a minute). Examples of its extravagant use are just everywhere! Every mile there is another group of those stoic sentinels destined to house the future laborers of local industry.



Between the apartment complexes, most of the land is large swaths sectioned off for what looked like rice farming. Nope! They are landlocked fisheries housing salt water fish in large pools. The most surprising thing (until the very next thing) is that despite all the cement production in the area, the pools have nothing separating the salt water and the soil, letting the poisonous water seep into the ground, seeming to explain why there is almost no vegetation there. Wrong again!

It just went on like this forever

And ever...

A Brief History Lesson
It turns out that the entire land area that we were driving on, including Yingkou city itself, used to be completely marshland. In 1858, the French, British, Russians, and Americans received all kinds of ridiculous compensation from the Chinese for winning the first part of the Second Opium War, including money, religious liberty for all the multitudes of Christians in China, not being referred to as "夷" (yí, barbarian) in official documents, and the opening of various trade ports (and legalization of opium), including Shen Yang. The British trade ships weren't able to navigate up the shallow river running from the Bohai sea and so they filled in the marsh bordering the mouth of the river, creating the port to be known as Yingkou.

The rest of the area was filled in about 20 years ago, using large chunks of rock from the surrounding hills and mountains, to make more room for more construction, fish farms, industry, and the shortcut between Dalian and Yingkou that we took. So THIS is the reason that there is almost no vegetation in the area.

365 Day Agriculture

Presumably carting off the last tree
in the area

Continuing south past the former marshland, you run into some very interesting farming techniques, a real gem in this cornucopia of unsustainable practices. Crops are all covered in plastic tarps on wire frames, keeping them warm enough to survive the winter and be sold locally at markets and supermarkets, saving energy and money on transportation. This strategy is excellent from a conservation standpoint and would work great in my hometown of Rochester up in upstate New York, but is not employed as far as I am aware.

They uncovered their wares
for a late customer

This is also why I was able to to meet a really friendly couple who run a small market in Yingkou to buy some eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, and cilantro for an awesome experimental dinner (3rd in the series). The food was almost definitely locally grown in one of these "warm rooms" (暖室), but their claim that it was organic (only after I asked) was probably a bit of marketing according to my boss. Either way, it was a great example of sustainability working towards not just it's own goals, but also contributing to the community by establishing a central place for residents to gather that's a little more personal than the supermarket.

Crops covered for the winter are still able to supply large quantities
of produce and keep food local 

A Different View

You can almost see the wind turbines through the smog

The desolate land aside, it is an amazing experience to view a completely different approach to dealing with the environment, whether the outcome is positive or negative. The insight into the Chinese perspective of trying to develop rapidly enough to give people a high standard of living in modern terms balanced with providing an ecosystem that can still support human life is an intensely interesting one. Along with many places around the globe, China being a relatively extreme example, the capital forces that drive expansion are powerful and so far nature has lost to industry to a large extent.

My boss has frequently referred back to the idea that the mass production of silicon solar panels in the past few years (particularly relevant in his case because he is working to replace them with a cleaner solution) have contributed to devastating the environment in China. They produce a large amount of pollution locally in China through their large initial energy cost and cut emissions abroad where they are installed in America, Europe, and elsewhere. This is of course true for an enormous amount of products in China (think Foxconn), where coal is burned locally to produce products for rich foreigners.

My boss wants to produce energy that is clean for China, not just its customers.

Almost to Dalian...Gotcha! Just another huge group of half-built apartment buildings in the middle of nowhere!