Commuters stranded as fog shrouds the capital
By Ni Yinbin |
December 6, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Thousands of passengers were stranded after more than 200 flights to and from Beijing were cancelled yesterday because of heavy fog in the capital.
Another 126 flights were delayed for more than an hour because of the fog which had shrouded the city since Sunday night, airport authorities said.
Of the affected flights, 39 commuter services between Shanghai and Beijing were cancelled with 14 others delayed yesterday morning.
Airline officials were advising passengers to alter their schedules or take other means of transport between the two cities as the fog would continue to affect Beijing today.
However, the sky is expected to clear tomorrow with a new round of cold fronts, said the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.
Many passengers stranded at Shanghai's two airports chose to travel to the capital by rail.
Airline offices at the Shanghai's airports set up express channels to allow stranded passengers to check the train schedules, said Cao Bei, an Air China official.
The Beijing weather bureau issued a yellow fog alert, lowest of a three-scale system, on Sunday afternoon and the alert was still in operation yesterday with a warning that visibility in the city had been reduced to 500 meters.
Many highways were closed or restrictions were in place due to poor visibility, Beijing authorities said.
The fog also closed six highways in the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and 20 highway entrances in east China's Shandong Province.
Fatal accidents
It also caused nine traffic accidents in eastern China's Jiangxi Province, leaving nine people dead and 11 injured on Sunday.
The National Meteorological Center said heavy fog would continue to cover the country's northern and eastern regions this morning, the Xinhua news agency reported, creating safety risks on roads and at docks, as well as at airports.
Fog and haze will decrease visibility to less than 1,000 meters in eastern parts of north China and most areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Hunan, the center said.
The weather center also forecast a strong cold front across central and eastern regions from today, bringing rain and snow as well as high winds to these regions over the next three days and rainstorms in parts of southernmost Hainan Province.
The cold front will also drop temperatures by more than 10 degrees Celsius in northern and northeastern China over the next three days, the center said.
Meanwhile, air quality in Beijing had worsened as a result of the fog but recovered a little yesterday.
The air will be better after the fog clears tomorrow, an official with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said.
Experts said pollution emissions had reached critical levels in Beijing, and the air quality is extremely dependent on weather, the official said.
Another 126 flights were delayed for more than an hour because of the fog which had shrouded the city since Sunday night, airport authorities said.
Of the affected flights, 39 commuter services between Shanghai and Beijing were cancelled with 14 others delayed yesterday morning.
Airline officials were advising passengers to alter their schedules or take other means of transport between the two cities as the fog would continue to affect Beijing today.
However, the sky is expected to clear tomorrow with a new round of cold fronts, said the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.
Many passengers stranded at Shanghai's two airports chose to travel to the capital by rail.
Airline offices at the Shanghai's airports set up express channels to allow stranded passengers to check the train schedules, said Cao Bei, an Air China official.
The Beijing weather bureau issued a yellow fog alert, lowest of a three-scale system, on Sunday afternoon and the alert was still in operation yesterday with a warning that visibility in the city had been reduced to 500 meters.
Many highways were closed or restrictions were in place due to poor visibility, Beijing authorities said.
The fog also closed six highways in the neighboring Tianjin Municipality and 20 highway entrances in east China's Shandong Province.
Fatal accidents
It also caused nine traffic accidents in eastern China's Jiangxi Province, leaving nine people dead and 11 injured on Sunday.
The National Meteorological Center said heavy fog would continue to cover the country's northern and eastern regions this morning, the Xinhua news agency reported, creating safety risks on roads and at docks, as well as at airports.
Fog and haze will decrease visibility to less than 1,000 meters in eastern parts of north China and most areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, including Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Hunan, the center said.
The weather center also forecast a strong cold front across central and eastern regions from today, bringing rain and snow as well as high winds to these regions over the next three days and rainstorms in parts of southernmost Hainan Province.
The cold front will also drop temperatures by more than 10 degrees Celsius in northern and northeastern China over the next three days, the center said.
Meanwhile, air quality in Beijing had worsened as a result of the fog but recovered a little yesterday.
The air will be better after the fog clears tomorrow, an official with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said.
Experts said pollution emissions had reached critical levels in Beijing, and the air quality is extremely dependent on weather, the official said.
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