The combined photo taken at the Jingshan Park shows the scene of western Beijing on July 2, 2013 (Up) and on June 28, 2013 (Bottom). A heavy rainfall and strong wind hit Beijing at the night of July 1, 2013, eliminating the haze enveloping China's capital in recent days, and bringing a clear day to it on July 2. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)
The sky turned blue again after a heavy rain on Monday night cleaned off the filthy air that had choked Beijingers since last Friday.
Beijing saw another heavily polluted day on Monday with visibility descending to only 500 meters in eastern part of the city, according to the air quality report released by Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center.
The recent poor air quality is the result of unfavorable atmospheric conditions, explained Wang Gengchen, physics researcher of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The atmosphere remained stable and lacked of convective activity, which blocked the diffusion of dirty air.
Xie Shaodong, a professor of environment science from Peking University, said that the frequent air pollutions are closely related to the increase of pollutants.
Xie’s view is echoed by Wang Yuesi, member of a CAS haze monitoring project. Under the circumstance of global climate change, the trend will become more unfavorable for pollutants diffusion, said Wang, adding that only substantial reduction in the pollutant is the effective solution to improve the air quality.
