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Sandstorms sweep across Beijing in spring
www.chinanews.cn 2006-04-27 18:12:19
Chinanews, Apr. 27 �CA large amount of sands, weighing to the tune of
several hundred thousand tons in all, were floating in the sky over
Beijing several days ago and covering the city with a pall of yellow
mist. Such sandstorm is expected to come again to the city around
Thursday, according to the forecast made by the Beijing municipal
meteorological bureau.
A sandstorm tested its strength in the city nine days ago when local
citizens woke up in the morning just to find that the whole city was
shrouded in yellow mist. It is estimated that about 300,000 tons of sands
fell in Beijing on that day, with every citizen receiving 20 kilos of
sand on average.
More and more people have begun to suffer from respiratory illness in
such sandy weather, and it is estimated that local hospitals have
received 40% more patients than usual. A vice mayor of Beijing, who is
usually mild-tempered, shouted at his subordinates, blaming them for not
doing a good job in overseeing the construction sites.
Meteorological experts said the sandstorm that hit Beijing on April 17
was the worst one in the past three years. The sandstorm blew from the
mid-western part of Inner Mongolia and swept across ten provinces and
municipalities nationwide including the capital city Beijing, affecting
the daily lives of more than 200 million people.
According to an official at the State Forestry Administration, China's
northern region contain large areas of desert lands, and as forests in
these areas continue to decrease year by year, desert lands have extended
and become the new source for sandstorms. At some places, the sand can
reach Beijing within a day.
Local people made jokes about the sandstorms in Beijing. Some said the
sand had caused a shortage of construction material for the city, and
others suggested that the local meteorological bureau forecast the
weather based on how much sand would fall the next day.
While most of the time people cannot control the outbreak of sandstorms,
experts said, we definitely can control the sand that is left on the
ground. In future, people should plan their activities by taking into
account the bearing capability of water and land resources, and control
desertification rate according to nature's rules. On the whole, we cannot
pit human beings against nature.
��If we cannot improve the ground condition, more severe sandstorms are
expected to hit Beijing and China's northern region in spring over the
next decade,�� an expert warned.
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