Beijing authorities have completed a network of monitors that will more accurately measure air quality in the smog-ridden city after being pushed into it by public pressure and pollution reports from the US embassy.
The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre said on Saturday that an additional 15 monitoring stations had begun releasing real-time data on small particulates known as PM2.5. The tiny pollution particles that may result from the burning of fuels in vehicles and power plants can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.
Beijing started releasing PM2.5 data in January. It now has 35 monitoring stations set up in central Beijing and its suburbs, including near tourist favourites Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven and the Beijing Botanical Garden.
The monitors will run for a three-month trial, and then the city’s environmental protection department will formally use PM2.5 to evaluate the city’s air quality, rather than relying on the larger particles it currently measures.
White mist sat stubbornly among the captial’s skyscrapers on Sunday as people travelled home on the final day of an eight-day public holiday that had brought with it mostly blue skies as industry shut down.
“Is it fog or is the PM2.5 higher than normal?” Zhao Yiyi, at Beijing Airport, wrote on Sina Weibo. She added: “Such air quality, it’s horrible.”