Metrological authorities deny heavy fog is pollution

Dense fog will continue to linger in the northern and eastern regions of the country until Friday, which has disrupted traffic conditions and worsened air pollution in Beijing and other major cities.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) issued a blue alert at 6 am Monday morning, saying the heavy fog will decrease visibility to less than 1,000 meters in the eastern and northern parts of China, including Beijing, Tianjin, and in the provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Hunan.

Since Sunday, at least 89 flights have been cancelled and 68 were delayed as of 10 am Monday morning due to the fog, according to the official website of the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) on Monday. The Jinan International Airport in Shandong Province has been closed for more than 24 hours as a result of the fog which emerged on Saturday, canceling up to 193 flights through Sunday, according to the Shandong-based Dazhong Daily.

The fog has had a huge impact on driving conditions throughout several parts of the country. A number of expressways in Beijing were closed over road safety concerns, and in Liaoning Province, vehicles waited for up to 50 miles near a charging booth as a result of drivers unwilling to exit the expressways under heavy fog conditions, according to local traffic management authorities.

The NMC said a cold wind current will hit eastern and central China beginning Tuesday and will last until Friday which could help dissipate the fog.

Zhang Mingying, a meteorological engineer at the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, told the Global Times on Monday that the recent fog is normal in terms of frequency during this time of year according to their monitoring.