beijing's smog: when a scale of zero to 500 doesn't go high enough - top air purifiers

Beijing disappeared in an afternoon.
The city has been crisp for a few days.
The wind blows down its ancient alleys and spreads, 12-
Lane passage;
The glass wall of its post-modern office building reflects an electric blue sky.
But by the end of the night, everything went away and fell into a carnivalwhite miasma.
The buildings were forgotten by the haze, and the sun turned into a dim yellow sphere, as a flashlight sparkled from under a blanket.
That's Friday, the level of pm2. 5. 5 —
Especially harmful particles, small enough to enter the blood through the lungs
Reaching 429 micrograms per cubic meter is 17 times the recommended limit of the World Health Organization.
The school will be closed by Monday;
At noon, the driver is using the headlights.
As the political and cultural capital of China, Beijing's exciting vitality has attracted many ambitious and passionate people.
There are quiet streets lined with persimmon trees and tree-lined parks for the elderly to practice tai chi.
Rich tourism opportunities;
Great art scene.
In general, the residents are very good --
Humor, hospitality, savvy.
Of course, there are also shortcomings.
The internet is censored, food is unsafe, and the political system is full of injustice, from minor corruption to a complete crackdown on dissent.
Living happily requires spiritual acrobatics, starting with focusing on the highlights: there are those blue ones --sky days.
Livelihoods are improving.
More and more people travel abroad.
Then something happened that made everyone lose their balance.
The pollution siege that lasted until Tuesday was one of them.
While this is one of the worst cases, this has happened before.
Residents in Beijing have learned how to take precautions.
If they can afford it, some people will have expensive air purifiers for their homes and offices.
Some people wear 3 m Carpenter's mask before going out.
But, on really bad days, the smog penetrated everything and hit the tongue with a strong chemical.
The city has become beyond recognition.
Color lost color.
The office buildings look abandoned, and their finer features do not pass through the haze.
Although there are pedestrians wearing masks, most people will endure them with a smile.
The mother uses her hollow eyes to send her children to school by bike;
The driver smokes through the open window and taps the Ashes.
Talking to any one of them, the conversation instantly turned into smoke --
The sting behind everyone's throat;
As a country, they live in a city that is "not suitable for human habitation", which is sad, even embarrassing --
A supported think tank wrote in 2014.
Then black humor-
The smog dropped, so did the meme.
In recent days, Internet users have sent stills of the zombie apocalypse movie;
Photographs of alien monsters superimposed in the smoky urban landscape;
And a series of monochrome, Gray photos related to major landmarks in Beijing
Temple of Heaven, remkohaas-
CCTV building-
Outline with a black mark.
Newsletter: On Sunday, President Xi Jinping traveled to Paris to attend the international climate change conference to get the headlines of the day from the Times editor Daven Maharashtra.
Chen Jining, China's environment minister, announced before his arrival that China had "achieved pollution-
Target reduction of major pollutants in the 12 th Five-Year Plan-
According to the state, complete the annual plan six months in advanceRun China Daily.
At the same time, Beijing has become worse.
By Monday, the widely recognized air pollution measure, the air quality index, reached 587 in the usual range of zero to 500, and was marked as "beyond index" on the city's monitors ". (
The highest level recommended by the United Nations is level 25. )
The government issued an "orange weather alert", suspended some factories and ordered schools to keep the children indoors.
The scope of this problem is difficult to understand.
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, smog spread to 204,634 square miles of land this week.
25% bigger than California.
For years, the government has blocked reports of smog until similar records --
Breaking pollution in 2013
Known as "airpoc" by Internet users"
Causing a surge in public complaints (
Running on Air Purifier).
On 2014, Premier Li Keqiang said in his speech that the government would "declare war" on smog ".
Authorities began releasing air pollution data with unprecedented transparency.
They shut down the coal.
A thermal power plant in central Beijing.
In April, Greenpeace released a detailed report noting that air pollution in Beijing and 359 other Chinese cities "has improved over the past 12 months ".
"The fact that the air has become very bad helps to strengthen the implementation of new regulations, but there is a long period of time for these regulations --
During the period, "said Deborah seligthorne, a Chinese environmental expert at the University of California, San Diego.
"On 2010, I went to a meeting when environmental officials talked about dealing with pm2. 5.
She continued.
"So they don't know what they're doing, and they don't change because of public opinion.
The reality is that not only the public living in this highly polluted environment, but also the senior officials of the government --
So every time the air gets really bad, they have to explain to the boss exactly what went wrong.
When you're at such a peak
Down system, this is different.
"By Tuesday, for the fifth consecutive day of smog, the color of the air had changed from gray to evil Orange.
The air is vaguely thick and difficult to concentrate. Eyes burned.
In the long gray movement, it is easy to worry that mi gas may never dissipate, that China's environmental problems are difficult to solve, and that the Chinese government will never honor its promises.
But on Tuesday night, there was a breeze in the city.
A ray of light from the top of the skyscraper.
By Wednesday morning, the smog had completely disappeared.
The sky is blue again.
Throughout the day, it arched over the landscape of color and depth --
Fortunately returned to state, at least before the weather improved and the city disappeared again.
Follow @ JRKaimanon Twitter for news from Asia.
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