China's white bullet trains turned dark brown while traveling in pollution-hit areas. Photo: Máté János Lõrincz' Facebook page
Beijing: China's national observatory Wednesday renewed alerts for air pollution and fog across the country as the gleaming white bullet trains turned dark brown while traveling in pollution-hit areas.
Photos of the trains with brown stains went viral and even flashed in the official media websites as thick smog shrouded Beijing and 71 cities for the past five days. Major expressways in China were closed and many flights got canceled due to high pollution.
The national observatory renewed alerts for air pollution and fog for some areas in northern, eastern and central China, including Beijing.
Heavy smog will persist in parts of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jiangxi and Hunan till Thursday, the National Meteorological Centre (NMC), which renewed an orange alert for those areas said. The thick fog will reduce visibility to less than 200 meters. In extreme cases, visibility may fall below 50 meters in those regions, it added.
The NMC also renewed a red alert for fog in a number of northern, eastern and central regions.
China has a four-tier color-coded warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Several expressways in Beijing -- including sections linking the capital with Harbin in the northeast, Shanghai in the east, and neighboring Tianjin Municipality -- were closed from the early hours Wednesday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Beijing Nanyuan Airport had canceled 46 flights. In central China's Henan Province, low visibility led to traffic restrictions on 12 expressways.
The province also ordered all kindergartens and primary schools to close for the day.
The neighboring province of Shandong upgraded its alert for heavy fog from orange to red Wednesday morning, and as of noon more than 155 flights from its capital Jinan had been delayed, canceled or diverted.
Many Chinese cities have suffered from frequent winter smog in recent years, triggering widespread public concern.
