yellow dust

So here's something. Every spring, Korean experiences a minor disturbance called yellow dust. Sand and dust from the Gobi desert gets swept up and makes a several hundred mile journey to Korea.

I heard about this a few weeks back, and in my mind I envisioned clouds of dust, a pale yellow sky, and a barely visible sun. As it turns out, it's not quite so bad, not yet at least. The worst effect of it that I have seen so far has been that cars are pretty filthy, with a layer of the yellow dust caked onto them.

That, and there's been a slight increase in the amount of people I see on the streets with hygienic face masks which cover one's mouth and nose. A lot of people wear these masks regardless as a means of preventing illnesses, preventing spreading their illness to others, or as a means to mitigate the effects of living in a country which has as much air pollution as Korea.