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A few worried folks back home have asked if I’ve been affected at all by the disaster taking place in Japan. Though the two countries are close neighbors, everything here in Beijing has been fine. Some news reports said that tremors from the earthquake were felt here, but I didn’t feel anything.

When comparing Asia and America, I think most people tend to have “immapancy” — what Kai Krause refers to as “insufficient geographical knowledge.” (Check out his map of Africa to see what I mean). So to put it in perspective, I did a quick overlay map to show you just how “close” Beijing was to Friday’s disaster.

The distance between Beijing and Tokyo (1,300+ miles, or a 3 hour 20 minute flight) is slightly more than that between New York City and Minneapolis, Minnesota:

Amateur map by yours truly. Drawn as closely to scale as possible. North and South Korea, which lie between Japan and China, have been taken off to provide perspective.

That being said, I did panic for a moment yesterday upon receiving a mass text from a friend containing the following message:

BBC FLASHNEWS: Japan govt confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. If rain comes, remain indoors first 24hrs. Close doors & windows. Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is, radiation hits thyroid first. Take extra precautions. Radiation may hit Phillipine at starting 4pm today. Pls send to your friends.

Turns out it was a hoax.

But my fears of radiation contamination were raised again after seeing Chinese colleagues sending this map (pictured below) to each other via IM services like QQ. It apparently shows where radiation could travel in Asia.

Turns out that too had some misleading information. Instead, it appears radiation winds will be traveling the opposite direction — east.

So everything looks safe, for now. If anything, I’d be more worried about the effect of Beijing’s pollution on my health than anything else. (See this Flickr photo I took of the skyline in November or any of my previous posts about pollution to see what I mean. )