China will make its biggest-ever effort to control the weather and prevent rain washing out festivities marking the 60th anniversary of communist rule, state media said yesterday.
China’s air force will deploy 18 aircraft to spray cloud dispersal chemicals into the atmosphere around Beijing, while “48 fog dispersal vehicles” will use similar technology at airports around the capital, the Global Times reported.
“It is the first time in Chinese history that artificial weather modification on such [a] large scale has been attempted,” the paper quoted Cui Lianqing, an air force meteorologist, as saying. “There are still a lot of uncertainties with the weather, and sometimes people can’t work against nature ... but we are trying our best.”
China is planning a massive parade, song and dance performances and fireworks at Tiananmen Square on Oct. 1 to mark the day when Mao Zedong (毛澤東) proclaimed the founding of the state in 1949.
Clear weather is especially important for the military parade, which will include a flyover by the nation’s most advanced fighter jets, the report said.
The capital made similar efforts for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics when over 1,100 “rain dispersal rockets” were fired into the skies to break up clouds around the Bird’s Nest National Stadium.
In addition to air force efforts, the Beijing Weather Modification Office is also preparing to implement similar cloud dispersal measures ahead of Oct. 1, Xinhua news agency has reported.
Remote satellite technology will be employed to help monitor weather changes and adjust modification measures, the report said.
Weather records show that there is a 30 percent chance of rain on Oct. 1, but precipitation has been light on most recent National Days, it added.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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