touring the Chernobyl area on a motorbike

It's a strange phenomenon. I have friends who have been in Beijing for years but still somehow call it "Beizhing"

how are you meant to say it?

'Bay-Djing'?

You can try to match the sounds / tones if you like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUIaFSbQ5nc

But this is a better approximation than "Beizhing"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlHsHe1jRQk

I'm not sure my ear can discern the difference between that and the 'wrong way' other than a harder 'j' sound?

They use a /ʒ/ sound, like in "usually" - a sound which doesn't exist in Mandarin

This doesn't look very good

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/13/ukraine-wildfires-close-chernobyl-nuclear-site

"don't worry" (as long you don't live in Greece or Russia)

https://earth.nullschool.net/#2020/04/13/2200Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-340.70,44.22,2274/loc=30.076,51.262

The fire seems to be under control now, thankfully.

On a side note the 5G conspiracy has reached Svetlana Alekseivich:

This is the biggest challenge since the Chernobyl era. It remains to be understood that this is - is it really influenza, or is 5G already affecting the human immune system. In my opinion, scientists do not have a final conviction. There are some complex processes of further technological development - here the influence of man on the atmosphere, new technologies, and the inability of man as a biological being to sustain it all.

I've just watched this excellent show. For some reason I'm now watching the BBC Salisbury Poisonings - with Coronavirus I'm never touching anything again.