After catching a brief glimpse of blue skies in Beijing, China last Thursday, locals once again inhaled the city's smog after a military event.
Last September 3, China celebrated its Victory Day to commemorate its 70th anniversary of the ending of World War II including Japan's defeat. On that day, Beijing was smog free as it revealed perfect blues skies where locals called it "military blue".
Unfortunately, after just 24 hours, after the festivities came to an end, blue skies vanished as air pollution covered the city once more. An independent air quality monitoring agency revealed results that air pollution levels have risen sharply overnight.
However, this is not the first time that the nation experienced a dramatic shift in air quality. During an APEC summit in 2014, Beijing also saw its rare sapphire skies for a period of two weeks when world leaders arrived at the city. Naturally, when the summit ended, the hazy smog returned as well.
China is a nation known for its massive air pollution problem, and seeing its blue skies once again is an amazing sight for many locals. Before the celebration started, there was also a vast blue above Chinese skies as Beijing locals relished this sight.
This was apparently brought about by the government when they ordered millions of cars off the roads and to shut down or scale back power plant and factory operations in the region. However, when this air pollution control measures were lifted after the military celebrations, the blue skies were not to be seen again for a long time.
When Friday arrived, Beijing's air quality index already reached 158 where some parts of the city reportedly reached 180. On the other hand, the city's particulate matter (PM 2.5) levels reached 70. The World Health Organization says that a PM 2.5 level that is considered safe should only reach 25 in a span of 24 hours.
According to Xiaomi CEO, Li Ming, all types of vehicles are now back out there where the city is totally jammed. Air pollution is back making the view from high buildings fuzzy.