Cheer up, here is a wave of good news

When I arrived at my office on the morning of the first working day of 2016, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. I took a deep breath and felt good about life.

Only several days ago we had spent a Christmas shrouded in smog and dulled by terrorist threats at famous bar streets in Beijing. And after a brief lull, smog hit again, leaving hapless residents confined to their homes and gasping for fresh air for the long New Year weekend.

When my young son begged to play outside, I challenged him to look out the window and see if there were any children in the playgrounds. Our neighborhood was eerily quiet and dormant then.