BJ SOS

In 2084, after the greatest sand storm, Beijing is covered with sand and dust. Nothing can grow, nothing is left. We start all over again. For those of us who remained in this land that we called home, we are not monsters. We are not that much different than you. Do not let my notoriously big nose scare you nor shall you ever see my nictitating membrane, a.k.a the transparent third eyelid, when sand gets lodged into my eyes. You might wonder what has happened and you were right, Beijing WAS a Supercity, with the tallest skyscrapers and the most complex transportation system you would ever experience in the world. In 2030, we became the largest economy in the world with the fastest GDP growth rate. Yet, none of you, not even us, were warned of the costs of such transformation. Since the founding of our country, the investment spent on construction amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. Only if the same amount of funding has been spent on cultural preservation and education, things could have changed for the better, but that was not our core values. If you had pay attention to the urban construction of Beijing, it expanded like a pie; agriculture was taken over inland while the survival of the city relied heavily on imports. Imports required efficient transportation system, yet the dis-unified zoning of districts made traffic congestion and management problems no strangers to us. Remember that thick, off-the-scale smog that shrouded us in 2013? The air pollution had not been mitigated since then, and it only got worse with our sole focus on the booming manufacture and finances. We lost control of our greediness, and our desires to buy and consume only further burden the landfills with more and more wastes. Materialism is deeply rooted in our genes. By 2023, Beijing was a colorless scene, tiny particulate matter penetrated deep into our lungs. Everyone has to wear facemasks to live their everyday lives. Our children are only allowed to stay indoors due to extreme air contamination. We lock up their bodies for healthy reasons, yet at the same time we imprison their souls. We spent more time in private cars and air-filtered tent than to expose our vulnerable selves in the polluted air. Was that wrong? No one ever told us so. Yet, chaos defeats order. We are now standing in front of you, pleading for trust and investment. You may see nothing but sand and the scorching sun remained in this land; yet there is us, a team of mutated survivors, educated and determined, learning the use of Fresnel lens to focus sunlight to sinter silica sand, allowing them to adhere and solidify as glass. We have been building up furniture in various sizes, but we need your assistance to reconstruct our homes layers by layers. Our form of residency will follow the ancient sand dune, merging into a lump. At the far end, the statue of resurrection will stand, reminding us to be better and stronger Beijing-nese. This obelisk will be the first skyscraper to be built after the restoration of Forbidden City. It functions as a “water lily”, capturing water droplets from condensation in the upper sky. We envision focusing our energy into rebuilding and conserving for the future, starting from scratch. History makes us stronger and shall never be forgotten!