BEIJING –
Severe smog in northern China on Sunday led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the closure of highways, disrupting the first day of the New Year holiday.
Most of the northern region was hit by harmful smoke in mid-December, leading authorities to order hundreds of factories to close and limit motorists to reduce emissions.
The latest round of air pollution begins on Friday and is expected to last until Thursday, though it will moderate slightly on the last day of Monday and New Year holidays.
In Beijing, 24 flights were canceled at the city’s main airport, and all the buses from the city to the neighboring cities were suspended, the airport said in its official microblogging statement.
The average concentration of small, breathable particles called PM2.5 in Beijing is more than 500 micrograms per cubic meter – 50 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommendation.
In the metropolis of Tianjin, Beijing, the smoke is not so serious, but the visibility is worse, more than 200 flights in Tianjin Airport canceled conditions can not be improved in the short term, the city government said.
The government added that some bus lines and highways in Tianjin were also closed due to haze.
In Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province in most parts of Beijing, about 20 flights were canceled and eight flights were diverted to other airports because of smoke, the People’s Daily said on its website.
Twenty-four Chinese cities issued a red alert for the current round of pollution, which imposed restrictions on vehicle use and plant closures, and 21 centers issued orange alerts, including Beijing and Tianjin.
China began the “pollution war” in 2014, because its heavy industry has been tarnishing its global reputation and hindering its future development, but it has been working hard to effectively solve the problem.
Pollution alarms are common in northern China, especially in winter, when energy demand is mostly met by coal, soaring.
Most of the country’s northern provinces rely on burning hundreds of millions of tons of coal annually for heating during the cold winters of northern China.
