Heavy smog causing chaos for holiday travelers
Print Edition
HEAVY smog in northern China caused hundreds of flights to be canceled and highways to shut yesterday, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday.
Large parts of the north were hit by hazardous smog in mid-December, leading authorities to order hundreds of factories to close and to restrict motorists to cut emissions.
The latest bout of air pollution began on Friday and is expected to persist until Thursday, although it should ease slightly today.
In Beijing, 126 flights were canceled at the city’s main airport and all buses to neighboring cities were suspended.
In neighboring Tianjin, the smog was not as serious but visibility much worse, with more than 300 flights canceled at its airport and conditions not expected to improve in the near term, the city government said. Highways into and out of the city were closed.
In Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province that surrounds most of Beijing, about two dozen flights were canceled and eight diverted to other airports because of the smog, the People’s Daily reported.
A total of 24 Chinese cities have issued red alerts for the current round of pollution, which mandate measures such as limiting car usage and closing factories, while 21 have issued orange alerts, including Beijing and Tianjin.
Heavy smog will persist in some parts of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Hubei and Anhui this morning, according to the National Meteorological Center.
The northeast of Liaoning and Jilin, central Hubei and eastern Jiangsu will be hit by moderate smog.
China has a four-tier warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
An orange alert means heavy pollution — PM2.5 higher than 150 — for three consecutive days. When the alert is in force, outdoor school activities are canceled and construction work suspended.
Beijing issued an orange alert for air pollution on Thursday that lasted until yesterday. Heavy polluting vehicles and trucks carrying construction waste are banned from roads and some manufacturing firms have cut production.
Outbreaks of smog are common in the winter in north China, where cold weather and burning of the dirty coal for heating combine to exacerbate the problem.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
