Relieved Northern China: Free from the Deadly Smog after Five Days

People of Northern China especially Beijing residents literally breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday. They were set free from the five days of deadly smog that engulfed the entire northern China region. A sudden cold and powerful wind have blown the smog away.

However, a haze of retaliation remained. Both people and government are blaming each other for the harmful pollution level that reached 30 times higher than World Health Organization's safe level on Monday.

According to the Discovery News report, Beijing ordered hundreds of factories to shut and allowed children to skip school as choking smog reached over 25 times safe levels on Tuesday, casting a cloud over China's participation in Paris climate talks. A thick grey mist blanketed the capital with PM 2.5 concentrations, detrimental microscopic particles that penetrate profound into the lungs, as high as 634 micrograms/cubic meter.

According to the World Health Organization, the maximum recommended amount of pollution level is 25 micrograms/cubic meter. When the northern China hit the high danger level of pollution, another province called Jinan reached over 400.

In order to deal with this grave situation, China authorities asked people to stay indoors while ordered cessation of 2,100 polluting businesses. Airlines cancelled more than 30 flights, only from Beijing and Shanghai.

As per International Business Times news, more than 23 cities in northern China had readings of PM2.5 fine particles over 200 -- categorized as "seriously polluted" in recent days -- with readings in Beijing hitting what state media called an "astonishing" level of 900 Monday, and more than 700 Tuesday, in the latest example of the Chinese capital's periodic winter "airpocalypse".

Generally, 500 are officially classified as the highest end of pollution scale in some monitoring devices. In some parts of Beijing, the pollution level came down to 10 on Wednesday.

Several residents of Northern China have posted the images of clear blue skies along with pollution index readings on various social media platforms. Some people even expressed their relief by saying that they have never been so happy by hearing the sound of winter winds.

As per the Daily Signal report, there has been a lot of attention given to China at the climate conference in Paris. As the largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, a lot depends on what China will do or more accurately what they won't do.

Several media houses have praised China for their sudden commitment towards climate change.The recent surveys showed that Chinese people have become quite concerned about air pollution lately.

On the debate of the cause of the fatal smog, authorities are blaming meteorological conditions involving low wind, temperature inversion and high humidity along with released gases and pollutants and approach of chilly winter in recent weeks. Creating the heat by burning energy to combat with cold only aggravated the already worsened pollution level.