Photos Of The Day: Beijing Issues First-Ever Smog Red Alert

The warning levels of air pollution are divided into four colors: blue, yellow, orange and red being the most hazardous.

The Chinese capital will remain in shutdown for the rest of the week after it became engulfed in a blanket of deadly smog. Most of the smog is blamed on coal-fired power plants, along with vehicle emissions, construction and factory work. “So it costs us a lot to make a mask, particularly in Britain”, Dobbing said. Public schools there are closed, transportation is shut down, and no barbecuing is allowed in open air.

In Beijing, hundreds of extra buses and dozens of extra subway trains were added to accommodate those forbidden to drive, as the city labored in the brownish air with no wind to blow it away.

Few students showed up at the Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary School as the school sent out text messages giving them the choice of either staying home or coming to school.

A slew of Beijingers said via social media they planned to escape the gloom.

Millions of cars have also been banned from the city’s roads.

At Ele.me, an online food delivery company, anti-smog face masks passed spicy chicken burgers as the product requested most by customers in Beijing, said a company spokesman, Zou Yang. London’s air is unhealthy to breathe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) designates the safe level for the tiny poisonous particles at 25 microgrammes per cubic metre.

“Construction waste, excavation transport vehicles, cement trucks, gravel transport vehicles and other large-scale vehicles are prohibited from driving on roads”, authorities said in the notice.

Some businesses closed and others said employees could work from home for the duration.

“You have to do whatever you can to protect yourself”, Beijing resident Li Huiwen said while stopping at a market.

“I like this kind of haziness”.

Vehicles travel on the Guomao bridge (bottom L) as the Central Business District (CBD) area is seen amid heavy smog after the city issued its first ever “red alert” for air pollution, in Beijing, China, December 8, 2015.

Some residents questioned why the red alert was being put in place now, as opposed to last week, which measured pollution levels at over 500.

Beijing instituted their system in 2013 and strengthened it earlier this year, the Times said.

His idea was sparked after constantly hearing about the reports of the frightful air quality in Beijing.

China’s polluted air has had severe health effects.

It also coincided with global climate change talks in Paris, where Chinese president Xi Jinping has vowed “action” on greenhouse emissions.

Environment Minister Chen Jining called a special meeting on Monday night to urge more supervision in Beijing and its surrounding cities including Tianjin as he increased the number of environmental inspection teams to 12, according to ThePaper.cn, a state-backed news website.