New Year's wish: Greener China and safer Europe

While wandering on a square in downtown Brussels on a quiet, wintry Christmas morning, I saw some people with lighted candles standing around a high-rise monument. But it seemed only a couple were reading the messages left on the cards with the flowers at the foot of monument.

As I approached the couple, they raised their heads and greeted me with "Merry Christmas". They told me that the night before many people had come to pay tribute to the victims of the Nov 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. After realizing that I was a Chinese, the woman asked me in her broken English whether I was from Shanghai. I shook my head and said that I was from Beijing.

"Peking, pollution ... a lot of ... I know from TV," she said. What she was trying to say is that she knew my city was suffering from smog. She said she had lived with her husband in Paris for years before moving to Brussels a few years ago after retirement. And although it was difficult for her to converse in English, she introduced her city (Paris) by repeating the word "shooting" with gestures.