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Beijing turns yellowish

BEIJING: Most Beijingers woke up on Monday to find that a ``yellow blanket'' has covered up everything in the open air: from window sills, cars and the ground to every single leaf on the trees. ``As if the desert has crawled to Beijing overnight,'' said Zhang Rui, a citizen in Chaoyang District in eastern Beijing. A sandstorm hitting the China-Mongolia border on Saturday and Sunday started to affect Beijing at midnight on Sunday and by daybreak, the city had turned yellowish. ``Unlike the particulate matter that often exists in Beijing's air, the suspending granules hitting the city today are bigger, though still less than 100 microns in diameter,'' said an official. China launched an afforestation project in 2000 in Inner Mongolia Region, which is blamed as the source of the sandstorms. — Xinhua

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