A sandstorm hit northern China on Thursday and is expected to
affect Beijing in one or two days, said the China National
Environmental Monitoring Center.
The sandstorm started early yesterday in Hohhot, the capital of
north China's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, and lasted about nine hours.
Airborne particulate matter measured 0.559 mg/m3, a
level considered "heavily polluted."
The strong sandstorm is moving quickly and is expected to sweep
into Beijing Friday or Saturday, the center said.
Residents of the city and surrounding areas are advised to stay
indoors.
The year's first sandstorm struck Beijing in mid-March, with a
windy cold front blowing the yellow, dusty haze from Inner
Mongolia.
Dust storms and sandstorms hit northern portions of China every
spring, and in several areas are becoming increasingly severe. In
recent years, such storms have sent dust floating as far away as
the Korean peninsula and Japan and have even affected the west
coast of the US.
Years of excessive logging and overgrazing, together with
weather phenomena, have led to rapid desertification in north and
northwest China. The spreading deserts are one of the main causes
of the storms.
Almost one-third of China's land mass is now desert.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn April 15, 2005)