Beijing was yesterday cloaked in thick yellow smog, with pollution levels surging off the charts as the worst sandstorm in a decade descended on China’s capital.
City residents used goggles, masks and hairnets to protect themselves from the choking air, with landmarks including the Forbidden City and the distinctive headquarters of state broadcaster China Central Television partly obscured behind an apocalyptic-looking haze of dust and sand.
The city government ordered all schools to cancel outside sport and events, and advised those with respiratory diseases to stay inside, while some highways were partially closed.
Photo: Reuters
The poor air quality was due to a sandstorm from northern Mongolia, where authorities said it had left several dead and dozens missing, before being carried south by winds and reducing visibility in Beijing to less than 500m.
Authorities described it as the worst sandstorm in a decade to hit the city, compounding days of hazardous PM2.5 — particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or less — pollution in the capital.
Under heavy skies, which draped buildings in an eerie glow, Beijing residents fretted over the health risks.
Photo: AFP
“I feel every breath will give me lung problems,” Beijing resident Zhang Yunya said.
Flight tracker Variflight said more than 350 flights had been canceled at the city’s two airports yesterday, with dozens more delayed.
“This sandstorm is very fierce,” said Pan Xiaochuan (潘小川), a Beijing-based environmental health expert. “I remember the sandstorms 10 years ago blew away in less than an hour, but I am afraid that this one will not have passed through the whole day.”
Six people were killed by the sandstorm in neighboring Mongolia, including a five-year-old boy from a herder family, the Mongolian National Emergency Management Agency said.
Another 81 people were still missing as strong winds and dust storms swept the country.
Pollution in Beijing was at “hazardous” levels, according to air quality monitoring Web site Aqicn, as the reading soared off the scale for many apps.
Aqicn said that levels of PM10 large particulate matter were nearly 20 times the WHO’s recommended daily maximum exposure.
However, the state-run Global Times said that PM10 pollution in Beijing’s six downtown districts was “over 8,100” yesterday morning — a figure which would be 160 times the recommended limit.
PM2.5 particles were also at a hazardous level of over 560 in the morning — more than 20 times the WHO’s recommended daily limit.
China cut its national average level of airborne PM 2.5 dramatically between 2015 and 2019, and the government has announced an ambitious target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060.
However, Greenpeace East Asia senior climate and energy officer Li Shuo (李碩) said that “intense” industrial activities have contributed to bad air in Beijing in the past few weeks, with the production of steel, cement and aluminum already overtaking levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was exacerbating the sandstorm’s conditions, which are “a result of extreme weather conditions and desertification,” he said.
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