Beijing: China's national observatory on Wednesday renewed alerts for air pollution and fog across the country as the gleaming white bullet trains turned dark brown while travelling in pollution hit areas, major expressways closed and over flights getting cancelled
Photos of the trains with brown stains went viral and even flashed in the official media websites as?thick smog shrouded Beijing and 71 cities for the past five days
The national observatory renewed alerts for air pollution and fog for some areas in northern, eastern and central China, including Beijing
Heavy smog will persist in parts of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi and Hunan till tomorrow the National Meteorological Centre (NMC), which renewed an orange alert for those areas said
The NMC also renewed a red alert for fog in a number of northern, eastern and central regions
From Wednesday morning to Thursday morning, thick fog in parts of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanxi will reduce visibility to less than 200 meters, it said
In extreme cases, visibility may fall below 50 metres in those regions, it added
China has a four-tier colour-coded warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue
Several expressways in Beijing -- including sections linking the capital with Harbin in the northeast, Shanghai in the east, and neighbouring Tianjin Municipality -- were closed from the early hours on Wednesday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported
Beijing Nanyuan Airport had cancelled 46 flights. In central China's Henan Province, low visibility led to traffic restrictions on 12 expressways
The province also ordered all kindergartens and primary schools to close for the day
The neighbouring province of Shandong upgraded its alert for heavy fog from orange to red Wednesday morning, and as of noon more than 155 flights from its capital Jinan had been delayed, cancelled or diverted
Many regions have experienced heavy smog since last Friday, and it looks set to persist for the remainder of the week
Data from Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center showed that the density of PM 2.5, particulate matter associated with hazardous smog, stood at 391 micrograms per cubic meter at noon in the city proper, indicating that the air is heavily polluted
Many Chinese cities have suffered from frequent winter smog in recent years, triggering widespread public concern
The central government has stepped up efforts to cut outdated production capacity and has dispatched inspection teams to provincial regions to supervise environmental measures at key industrial enterprises.
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