The skyline of Beijing was once again darkened by dust on the morning of Feb. 28, and sections of highways were closed off to traffic with visibility at less than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles).
Instead of the usual haze of pollution witnessed recently, China’s capital was engulfed in dust as a sandstorm blew in, state media Xinhua reported.
Beijing is not the only city affected. The sandstorms hit Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces on Wednesday night, stemming from Inner Mongolia.
The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau said that highways in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei were closed as of early that morning. However, by late morning highways were re-opened to traffic between Beijing and Tianjin, and Beijing and Shanghai.
In the early hours in Tianjin, a heavy fog reduced visibility to less than 200 meters (650 feet), with whole sections of highway in the metropolis closed off. All flights out of Tianjin Binhai International airport were delayed, and a total of 177 vessels were stuck at the Tianjin dock, according to Singdao Daily.
Fog was predicted to continue affecting central-eastern China as of early morning on Feb. 28, including eastern Sichuan, Chongqing, southern Shaanxi, and nearby areas, according to the Weather China website.
By March 1 sandstorm activity had affected Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and other provinces.
Read the original Chinese article.
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