High smog alert likely as pollution goes off the charts in Beijing, Hebei
High alert likely with smog forecast to blanket Beijing until Wednesday
Only one thing will be clear in Beijing this weekend - and it won't be the skies. More smog is on the way after pollution exceeded the maximum reading on the Air Quality Index in parts of the capital and 10 Hebei cities on Thursday and yesterday.
The dismal results came less than a fortnight after the capital experienced "Apec blue" skies during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Beijing is expected to be blanketed in smog from today to Wednesday, which could trigger an orange alert, the second-highest alert for air pollution, the environment ministry said.
While local governments said the onset of winter heating was to blame, others said it was payback as hundreds of factories ordered shut during the summit sought to make up for lost production time.
In Xinji , a leather and fur manufacturing hub in Hebei, one reason the air quality index rose above the 500 maximum was high levels of PM2.5 - the tiny particles most damaging to health - which hit 825 micrograms per cubic metre at about 11am yesterday, according to a city monitoring station. That is 10 times higher than the World Health Organisation's safe limit.
Other Hebei cities - including Langfang , Xingtai , Tangshan and Shijiazhuang - saw PM2.5 levels rise to about 500 micrograms per cubic metre around noon yesterday.