Air pollution in northern China halts traffic and factory work

However, the city lifted its red alert for air pollution as last night’s cold air dispersed the smog that had lingered for days.

In Shandong, more than 100 toll gates on four expressways were closed and some flights were delayed by more than two hours.

By 10 a.m. on Sunday in Tianjin, 35 worldwide flights had been delayed or canceled and all highways in and out of the city, with one exception, were shut, Xinhua said.

On Saturday, after pollution levels soared to more than 10 times the safety limit, Beijing and 22 other Chinese cities were forced to impose emergency measures such as banning vehicles from the road and ordering factories and schools to close.

Despite months of efforts to hone its rapid response systems, air quality deteriorated in parts of the region on Tuesday, with the environment ministry warning that firms were flouting emergency restrictions. With the exception of first-class seats, tickets to resort areas in Yunnan and Fujian provinces are nearly sold out, the paper reported. “I don’t quite understand his art form, but his work can make more people know about smog in Beijing, right?”, said 27-year-old Xu Chenglong.

In addition, heavy winds force pollution from nearby provinces to the Beijing-Tianjin area where it remains suspended over the cities.

Tonny Xie, director of the Clean Air Alliance of China, said: “China’s long-term clean air vision requires the cleaning up of both the industrial structure and energy structure”. There were no further updates as of Tuesday in Asia.

A long and troubling issue has seen its most egregious levels of smog, leaving an iconic city hidden behind the specter of pollution.

The World Health Organization measures air quality by the amount of small, particles in it, known as PM2.5. Media reports in the central province of Henan also showed pictures of students completing school activities in the dirty open air. According to the environmental group Greenpeace, more than 460 million people across northern China experienced “heavy” or “hazardous” pollution – equivalent to the populations of the U.S., Canada and Mexico combined.

Beijing activated its first red alert for smog this winter as the air began to turn hazy on Friday, ending several days of blue sky.

A smog-shrouded Chinese city cancelled airline flights Sunday due to poor visibility and parents took children to hospitals on the second day of a pollution alert across the country’s north.