Fluff gets in your eyes

Anyone who was out and about this past weekend might have wondered if there'd been some kind of accident at a toy-stuffing factory down south. Longer-term residents, however, know that the season of fluff is upon us again. Beijing's numerous poplar and willow trees have begun releasing great tracts of fluffy pollen into the air. In Chinese the pollen is known as either 杨絮 (Yangxu) or 柳絮 (Liuxu), and while a minor distraction to most of us, can clog up the air conditioning systems of cars and buses and cause breathing difficulties for those with allergies. The pollen seems to be especially dense along the Eastern 4th and 5th Ring Roads and also by the Airport Expressway.

Despite last year's announcement that arborists, in an attempt to reduce the amount of springtime fluff (only the female trees release pollen), were beginning a huge "sex change operation" targeting the city's 300,000 poplar trees, it seems that there's just as much pollen floating around this year as there was last year.

You can expect the fluff to continue getting caught in your hair and flying into your mouth until the end of the month.

Links and Sources:
Beijing Daily: Image of child running through fluff
The Beijinger Forum: Fibre Storm
Sina: Image (bike and tree) 组图：济南三月飘“大雪” 原是杨絮在作祟
Beijing News: 及时清理柳絮
Reuters: Chinese poplar trees to undergo "sex change"
Sohu: 杨柳“变性”抑制飞絮
Xinhua: 北京为杨柳树做“变性手术”减少飞絮污染