I took these photos over the past 27 hours in Beijing. The last one was taken about four hours ago.

If you saw this out your bedroom window on a typical day, I imagine you'd probably think, "Wow, it's a smoggy day."

And if you lived in foggy San Francisco (I lived in nearby Oakland for a decade), you'd probably know the difference and think, "Wow, it's a smoggy day."

But Chinese and International Olympic Committee officials are telling us not to trust our eyes.

As the Olympics get under way tonight, pollution is becoming the top issue. More than 10,000 world-class athletes will have to run in around in this air, and I don't envy them.

To hear official Chinese and IOC accounts though, there's nothing to worry about.

As banners placed around Beijing read, "I participate, I cooperate, I enjoy."

Or as a front page headline of today's state-controlled China Daily reads, "Air is fine, let the Games begin."

The strategy of both Chinese and IOC officials is to bog this discussion down in semantics. That same China Daily repeatedly calls the grayness "haze," as if that dispels pollution concerns.

"(IOC President Jacques) Rogge had a word of advice on the haze that shrouded Beijing a day before the start of the Olympics," the front page article reads.

"There is a difference between the haze enveloping the city and damaging air pollution, he said, rubbishing claims to the contrary. What you see is the result of 'humidity and heat,' he said. It does not mean it 'is the same as pollution.'"

According to all-wise Wikipedia, however, "Haze is traditionally an atmospheric phenomenon where dust, smoke and other dry particles obscure the clarity of the sky."

That pretty much sounds like smog to me.

But even if my brain tells me, "OK, the China Daily says it's just haze, relax," my eyes and lungs tell me "Intruder alert."

I'm slowly getting used to it now, but for the first few days, whenever I stepped outside, I would within minutes transform from a relatively healthy adult to a soar-throated, teary-eyed sap coming down with a cold. And then I'd get healthy again minutes after stepping inside.

That might be the little saving grace there is to this situation. Many of the athletic events are happening indoors (although "haze" has been seen inside the Water Cube swimming venue and the Media Press Center.)

And these are world-class athletes after all, so I'm sure they'll make the best of it and speak up if they're concerned about their health.

But maybe not. U.S. athletes have disturbingly been playing the "haze" game lately too. On Wednesday, superstar U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps even called it "fog."

Make no mistake, this is not fog.

Again, Wikipedia: Fog is a cloud in contact with the ground.

This is what fog looks like:

Photo/Michael Diederich

As a Bay Area native, I know fog. It rolls in and rolls out. It feels damp when it's around you.

What we have in Beijing just sort of stirs around, maybe gets blown away and then returns, and it's bone dry. Maybe the China Daily should call it "dry fog."

Having grown up in L.A., I know smog too, and this looks like the real thing. But what I'm seeing this week is worse than anything I ever saw in L.A.

Maybe it'd just be easier to participate, cooperate and enjoy instead of think about what I'm seeing. That's at least what the Chinese government hopes we'll do.

OK, I give in. Let the dry fog Olympics begin! Enjoy San Francisco by the Gobi! And remember, it's haze, which means enjoy!

-Jack Chang