(SCMP) Persistent heavy smog on Tuesday caused massive flight delays in and around Beijing, snarling traffic and even pushing up vegetable prices in the capital.
By 6pm, 359 flights at Beijing Capital International Airport had been cancelled, according to an airport statement.
The Hong Kong Airport Authority said 16 flights to Beijing were delayed, while one Beijing-Hong Kong flight was cancelled and 12 others delayed. Flights to Tianjin were also affected. Three departing and three arriving flights were cancelled.
At least 23 cities in the north had issued red alerts for air pollution, and smog covered a seventh of the country, China News Service reported.
In smog-bound Tianjin, 243 flights were cancelled and 63 delayed by 5pm. Massive delays were also reported in Jinan and Qingdao in Shandong province.
Of the 60 flights supposed to have landed in Beijing between midnight and 3am on Tuesday, only two – one from Japan and the other from Russia – had been able to land.
Among those unable to land was a plane carrying the chief executive of the world's biggest oil exporter.
Amin Nasser, CEO of the Saudi Arabian oil producer Aramco, was due to attend an event on Saudi culture at Beijing's National Museum. But company officials said his plane was diverted. Many travellers were also left stranded at other airports.
In Beijing, visibility fell to below 200 metres and some highways on the sixth ring road and main roads connecting the capital to neighbouring cities in Hebei and Tianjin were closed.
Beijing commuter Hu Shiqiang said she felt she was living in a wartime film. "The dirty air and repeated news about the red alert all feel so surreal," she said."[If I didn't have a meeting] I would stay indoors."
Dongcheng district grocer Dong Qiang said food prices were bound to rise.
"If you think 5 yuan for 500 grams of tomatoes is expensive then just come back tomorrow," Dong said. Five yuan is equal to 72 US cents or HK$5.50.
"The price will surely go up. I went to buy vegetables at night and the seller told me it took him eight hours for a trip that normally took him only two hours because of the thick smog."
Dong said he was now selling his old stock because fresh supplies from Shandong province had failed to arrive due to the highway closures.
Liu Jiaqi, an engineer at a state-owned design institute, said she had to take her daughter with her to work because the child's school was shut and there was nobody to look after her at home.
"The authorities mean well by suspending school but it also brings problems for people like me who don't have other people to look after their children," Liu said.
On Monday, three days after the red alert – the highest warning level in the four-tier system – came into force in Beijing, air quality plummeted. Several of the capital's air quality monitoring sites reported levels of 2.5PM – particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that can cause the greatest harm to public health – hit 500 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday night. The World Health Organisation recommends an annual average exposure of 10.
Elsewhere in the capital, elderly men continued with their morning walks – despite the smog – with some wearing masks. "This is my daily exercise routine walking for an hour around the block," said 75-year-old Xiao Qing, who was not wearing a mask. "I can't breathe wearing a mask. I will go home and keep the windows shut when I am finished."
According to forecasts, the pollution will gradually abate with the expected arrival of northerly winds on Thursday.
Source: South China Morning Post by Zhuang Pinghui
from China Travel & Tourism News http://ift.tt/1iB6EFm | 
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