Beijing Air Quality Reaches Hazardous Level on May Day
2006-05-01 20:10:00
Xinhua
Holidaymakers in the Chinese capital are being told to expect better weather in the next few days after the week-long May Day celebration got off to a dusty and polluted start.
Air quality in Beijing hit "hazardous" levels on Monday after a haze of dust from areas southeast of Beijing hovered over the city from Sunday afternoon, said the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
It rated the air quality as level five, the highest on the bureau's classification system, when the city normally issues warnings to elderly people and children to stay indoors and avoid strenuous activities.
From 4 p.m. Sunday to 8 a.m. Monday, the content of particulate matter in the air stayed at more than 500 microgrammes per cubic meter, the bureau said.
A wind from the northwest on Monday morning blew away some of the particulates, but the content still stood at 200 microgrammes per cubic meter after 9 a.m. Monday.
The dust storm is the 13th to hit Beijing this year, but only the first to come from the southeast as the others all came from the northwest, the bureau said, blaming continuous dry weather in North China.
Strong winds swept the Tianjin and Langfang areas, neighboring Beijing, on Sunday. At 5 p.m. Sunday, the content of particulates in the air reached 1,000 microgrammes per cubic meter in Liangxiang and Daxing area in suburban Beijing.
Experts with the Beijing environmental protection bureau forecast that Beijing air would gradually clear in the next few days.
Beijing reported six days with hazardous air quality and only nine clear days with fairly good air quality last month, the worst record for April since 2002.
The Beijing authorities are working to achieve 238 "blue sky days" this year, but the city has only seen 60 days with good air quality so far.
Despite serious air pollution, the municipal authorities have refused to cut the target number of blue sky days.
"I'm confident that we can realize the blue sky target," said Pei Chenghu, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
He said his confidence came from Beijing's enhanced efforts to control air pollution.
Beijing launched a campaign to curb air pollution on April 20, targeting dust pollution at construction sites and air pollution caused by vehicle emissions.
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Producer: Li Yongjing