The sky above Beijing turned yellow and air pollution skyrocketed as a giant cloud of sand and dust particles rolled into the city, driven by strong winds from northern China.
Beijing’s air quality index rose to 324 on Thursday at 16:00 local time (0800 GMT), mainly due to larger sand and dust particles, municipal authorities said.
It worsened in the evening and in some parts of the city more than 1,300, according to the Swiss IQAir app.
The particles are from Mongolia and the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and the strong wind is expected to transport the pollutants to central and eastern China by Friday, the China Meteorological Administration said.
The amount of sand in the air last month was less than the two sandstorms in northern China, but the wind speed was higher, according to the meteorological administration, to move the dusty atmosphere faster and further.
“I do not feel well. We have had several dust storms this year,” said Gary Zi, a 48-year-old resident of Beijing who works in the financial sector.
“The (air) quality is much worse than in previous years,” he added. “Breathing becomes difficult. Sand gets in your eyes and in your nose.”
China usually blames the Gobi Desert in Mongolia for its annual sandstorms.
Delegates from China’s arid Gansu region said in a motion to parliament last month that more than half of the dust storms that hit China each year come from abroad, mainly from southern Mongolia.
Beijing has planted millions of trees along its border to block sandstorms, part of a project called the ‘Great Green Wall’.
“I feel it’s all climate change,” said another Beijing resident as he wiped the dust off his car near the China World Trade Center, giving only his surname, Xie. “(We) can not do much about it.”
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