
Airliners at Beijing Capital International Airport yesterday morning. Several flights were delayed by the poor visibility. Photo: Xinhua
Beijing is once again enveloped by smog. Traffic and flights in Beijing were disrupted Sunday because of smog that shrouded the city and some other provinces in China, officials said.
SCMP reports: “Travel chaos at end of holiday after visibility drops below 500 metres, and new study puts the blame on nature and human activities.
“Thick smog that blanketed Beijing and surrounding regions for a record 21 days last month returned yesterday, causing travel chaos as many businesses reopened and people returned after the Lunar New Year holiday.
“Highways were forced to temporarily close and airline traffic was disrupted as visibility near BeijingInternationalAirport fell, delaying some early morning flights, Xinhua reported.
“At 7.45am, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau issued a ‘yellow’ fog alert, indicating that visibility in eastern and southern parts of the city would be less than 500 metres in the next three hours, and authorities urged residents to take necessary precautions.
“The yellow warning was lifted at 11am, and the smog levels had fallen sharply by last night.”
The air quality index reached 500, or extreme pollution, in five monitoring sites at 8 a.m. in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province.

Citizens wait to cross the road at an intersection in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province on Saturday. Photo: Xinhua
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Categories: Health & Environment
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