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Century’s longest solar eclipse

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Tomorrow morning, the longest total solar eclipse of this century will begin. People will only be able to see it in Asia. Reporter Bill Marcus is awaiting the big show in Shanghai.
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LISA MULLINS: The longest total solar eclipse of this century will last more than six minutes, and it happens tomorrow morning. You won’t be able to see the eclipse in the western hemisphere, though. But in Asia it will be a glorious sight, weather permitting. The eclipse will be visible first at dawn in India’s Gulf of Khambhat. Then, it’s gonna be seen in a broad swath moving to Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and China. Reporter Bill Marcus is awaiting the big show in Shanghai, China, where it’s already Wednesday morning.

BILL MARCUS: Central and Central eastern China goes dark later this morning at 9:39 local time. That’s the only thing we know for sure. It may rain, clouds are likely. A Shanghai Astronomical Observatory spokesman in state media is almost apologizing that it will be a great pity if the weather ruins the event. In ancient times, an eclipse would be very scary.

DU MIN DE: Yin and Yang is not just sun and moon. Yin and Yang represent, sky, earth, and human being.

BILL MARCUS: Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor, Du Ming De says eclipses are all about balance.

DU MIN DE: The moon will cover the sun, this is not so good, it’s not a good thing, and many bad things will happen.

BILL MARCUS: The eclipses in China fall into that category of catastrophe that includes typhoons and earthquakes. They used to foretell the downfall of dynasties, if not governments.

JAMES HARGETT: It does not mean that the communist party will fall.

BILL MARCUS: That’s James Hargett, Professor of East Asian Studies at the State University of New York at Albany.

JAMES HARGETT: It could mean higher retail prices because as a result of the attention that China is getting, more people are going there, more people are spending money. Greater demand, higher prices.

BILL MARCUS: State media are delighted. In China, thousand foreigners are filling hotel rooms. From Chongqing in the West through, Wuhan, Hangzhou, and finally Shanghai on the East coast, commercial television stations, restaurants, hawkers. Everybody is looking forward to what is shaping up to be a very profitable day. At one restaurant called New Heights, seven stories above Shanghai’s famous waterfront the Bund, 100 Japanese are renting the place for the morning. Price tag, seven thousand dollars. It started months ago. Last month I got an e-mail advertisement, the first total solar eclipse since the Ming Dynasty of the 16th century, it said.  It urged me not to miss it because the next one won’t come until 2132.

JAMES HARGETT: This is what China wants. It wants to be a major player on the world stage. And we’ll take Olympics, we’ll take eclipses, we’ll take whatever we can get to get that attention.

BILL MARCUS: For The World, I’m Bill Marcus in Shanghai.

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