Capital raises four-tier health alert, while some expressways closed due to limited visibility

Residents in vast northern and northeastern regions awoke to encounter severe smog on Friday, prompting Beijing to raised its health alert.

Visibility dropped to below 200 meters in some areas, including the capital and the southern region of Liaoning province on Friday morning due to pollution mixed with heavy fog, leaving some expressway sections closed for hours.

At 6 pm, some monitoring stations in the capital recorded an air quality index of 301, the second-worst air quality level in the six-tier system, according to data from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center.

The capital raised the emergency response from blue to yellow on Friday afternoon. It's the second time that the capital issued the third highest alert in October.

At 9 am, 16 cities in Shandong province were blanketed by heavy smog as well, according to the provincial environmental authority.

The spell of smog covering these regions, such as Beijing, Hebei, Shandong and Liaoning provinces, would disperse after a rain on Sunday, the National Meteorological Center said.

"It's frustrating to breathe the choking air, and reminds me of my experiences during last winter's hazardous smoggy days," said Zhang Shuai, a 33-year-old with asthma from Shenyang, Liaoning province.

In November, many cities including Shenyang saw air quality readings off the charts due to large emissions and poor weather to disperse pollutants.

Zhang had to stay indoors with air filtering equipment running all day, but she still had problems breathing.

"Though the air pollution today is not as severe as last winter, I am afraid it's just the start," she said, adding that she has to ask for leave if hazardous smog hits in the coming months.

Many people, as well as governments and experts, shared her concerns, as the northern regions burn large amounts of coal to provide heat.

Chen Jining, the minister of environmental protection, admitted that it's a thorny issue since it involves thousands of families, but controlling coal consumption has been made a priority this year.

Zheng Fengxiang, from Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, said all the villagers will use natural gas instead of coal for heat this winter after Lingshou county installed pipes to their households and provided subsidies of around 4,000 yuan ($594) to each family.

"In the coming months, I won't have to breathe the choking air from the boiler any more," he said, adding that he did feel encouraged by government support to control air pollution.

Contact the writers at zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn