A tale of two cities: smog leaves Beijing a city divided
Strong winds slowly dispersed thick smog in Beijing, leaving the north of the capital clear of air pollution for a time on Tuesday morning but the south still shrouded in fumes.
The view from the 61st floor of a commercial building in Beijing’s central business district at 10.30am showed the capital seemingly divided into two different worlds.
Blue skies shone clear above skyscrapers to the north, but turning 180 degrees to the south, the city was still cloaked under a thick grey blanket of smog.
Winds speeds reached up to 28km/h during the morning.
China’s environmental watchdog lifted its first orange smog alert ahead of the winter on Monday – a day earlier than scheduled.
The alert led to a halt in production at factories and industrial sites, including steel and cement plants, as well as mines. Vehicles with low emission standards and trucks transporting construction waste were banned from the capital’s roads.
Beijing’s air quality index dropped from about 250 in the early morning – classified by the authorities as “very unhealthy” – to a moderate 86 at noon. Air quality was forecast to further improve in the afternoon.
Northern China is regularly hard hit by air pollution in the winter as heating systems are turned on, many fuelled by coal-fired power stations.
