One week in Beijing: from blue skies to smog and back again

Visitors arriving for China’s ‘two sessions’ were treated to a few clear days before smog descended on the city

Reading Time:1 minute

A combination photo shows the weather conditions respectively on (from left) Feb 27, Feb 28, Mar 01, Mar 02, Mar 03, Mar 04, and Mar 05, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 7:45pm, 6 Mar 2017Updated: 11:40am, 2 Apr 2017

China’s Premier Li Keqiang vowed to “make our skies blue again” in his annual work report in Beijing on Sunday. If the past seven days are anything to go by, he has a big job ahead of him.

While the air over Beijing was clear in the early days of last week, by Thursday smog began to descend on the city, just as the country’s top political officials were arriving for the annual “two sessions” plenary meetings of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

A combination photo shows the weather conditions respectively on (from left) Feb 27, Feb 28, Mar 01, Mar 02, Mar 03, Mar 04, and Mar 05, at the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square. Photo: Simon Song

On Friday, the hourly average density of PM2.5 – superfine airborne particles considered most hazardous to human health – hit 83.8 micrograms per cubic metre, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Although well above the World Health Organisation’s recommended safe level of 25 micrograms per cubic metre, this was considerably lower than the ministry’s earlier forecast of 140 to 160 micrograms per cubic metre.

Watch: Time-lapse footage of Beijing’s hazy skies last week