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BEIJING (AP) — Schools in the Chinese capital kept students indoors and parents brought their kids to hospitals with breathing ailments today as Beijing grapples with extremely severe air pollution for the fifth straight day.
The heavy smog obscured the capital's skylines with a monotonous gray and left buildings just a block or two away hardly discernable. Neon signs barely punctured the gloom, and many Beijing residents wore masks of various kinds while walking the streets.
Outside a packed children's hospital in downtown Beijing, parents and grandparents complained about the smog's health impact on small children.
The pollution spike is a reminder of China's severe environmental challenges as President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) joins other world leaders at the Paris climate conference.
Factories and construction sites were told to reduce work.
China's cities are among the world's dirtiest after three decades of explosive economic growth that led to construction of hundreds of coal-fired power plants and the spread of automobile ownership.
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APPHOTO XAW103: A woman uses a cloth to cover her face from pollutants as she walks past a construction building on a heavily polluted day in Beijing, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015. Beijing on Sunday, Nov. 29 issued its highest smog alert of the year following air pollution in capital city reached hazardous levels as smog engulfed large parts of the country despite efforts to clean up the foul air. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) (30 Nov 2015)
<<APPHOTO XAW103 (11/30/15)££
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