Beijing says fog not due to New Year fireworks

22 Feb 2007 11:01:13 GMTSource: Reuters

SHANGHAI, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have assured citizens that a heavy fog which blanketed Beijing this week, disrupting flights and closing roads, was not due to fireworks set off in Lunar New Year celebrations.
The fog cut visibility in the capital to several dozen metres on Wednesday, forcing the main international airport to cancel 190 flights. Parts of seven highways in Beijing and 10 in neighbouring Tianjin were temporarily closed.
It was the first time in over a decade that fireworks were permitted throughout Beijing, and the official Xinhua news agency reported that sales by two major suppliers had ballooned to 380,000 boxes this year from 240,000 last year.
Some local media and Internet postings speculated that fireworks were responsible for the fog. "Setting off fireworks has increased polluting particles in the atmosphere," the First newspaper quoted unnamed experts as saying.
But Guo Hu, Director of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory, told Xinhua on Thursday that while fireworks may have affected the air to some extent, they were not the cause of the fog.
"We had actually forecast a haze in Beijing for Wednesday, although it developed into a fog due to an increase in humidity after being affected by fog from Shandong Province and vapour from the Bohai Sea," Guo said.
Strong winds swept the fog away on Thursday.

Beijing sets ambitious 'blue sky' target for 2007

Beijing set an ambitious 245-day "blue sky" target for this year after beating the annual good-air-quality day target in 2006.

The Chinese national capital will strive to have 245 days with level two on the air quality index or better in 2007, four days more than that of last year, according to the municipal environmental protection bureau.

The city had fulfilled the annual target of 238 days for 2006 by December 24, and saw three more days of blue sky before the New Year's Day.

The target last year was once widely believed to be a "mission impossible" as the city was hit by severe sandstorms last spring.

By the end of last June, the city had recorded 10 fewer days of fine air quality than in the same period of the previous year, according to the bureau.

Experts said the rains in July and August led to the record number of good air quality days, which helped the city eventually catch up and even outstrip the pre-set plan.

Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the bureau, attributed the achievement partly to intensified efforts made by environmental protection agencies at various levels in reducing pollution from coal burning.

According to the bureau's website, the municipal government will put air quality improvement, the residents' biggest concern, on top of its agenda in 2007.

Thirsty Beijing embraces long-awaited snow

(Xinhua)Beijing is experiencing the first snow of this winter, which slipped into the dry and grey city in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The snow started at 2:40 a.m., blanketing the Chinese capital and slowing down the traffic in the morning rush hour.
Traffic congestion on slippery roads have caused a lot of trouble for the working population, most of whom are advised to work through this weekend before taking the first three days of the new year off.
Beijing's high temperature was minus one degree Celsius on Saturday, down by at least six degrees from last week.
The municipal administration commission sent 330 cleaners and 132 vehicles to sweep snow and spray snow-dissolving agents along major urban roads at dawn.
The commission said some 258 tons of snow-dissolving agents and 294 tons of solutions have been sprayed in the city center.
The weatherman said the snow will stop around noon.