The severe sandstorm that was hovering over Beijing for the past few days finally moved out of the city Friday morning, leaving a heavy layer of dust and sand on the ground.
Experts with the State Environmental Protection Administration said some 30,000 tons of fine sand and dust were blown into the capital.
In an earlier sandstorm last weekend, some 26,000 tons of sand and dust also landed on Beijing.
Dong Xuhui, director of the sandstorm research group under the administration, said the sandstorm that invaded Beijing this week was the most severe since the group began conducting sandstorm research in 1995.
"In some sandstorms in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, visibility had been lowered to less than 1 metre,'' Dong said.
The administration's satellite sandstorm supervision system showed that sand and dust drifted at about 2,500 to 3,500 meters above the ground, affecting Beijing for 51 consecutive hours.
"The sand and dust particles in the air are relatively small, so they could easily invade people's breathing systems,'' Dong said.
Unfortunately, there are no effective ways to stop or decrease the frequency of sandstorms in the near future.
Gao Jixi, a researcher with the China Environmental Science Institute, suggested that the government address the overall problem as part of its environment protection policy.
Though protective forests in North China are expected to grow soon, Gao said that drifting sands at high altitudes could still invade most cities.
"We should consider the environment in northern and western China as a whole when adopting related environment protection policies,'' Gao suggested.
He said governments in the relevant provinces and autonomous regions should speed up their industrial restructuring and firmly put a stop to industrial practices that harm the environment.
Gao said some hasty tree-planting activities should also be stopped because many of tree species have now been found not to match the local soil.
"Planting more trees does not mean the improvement of the environment,'' he said.
Gao was invited to present an environmental report to Premier Zhu Rongji last year. Gao had advocated the building of a large ecological system in northern and western China to resist sandstorms.
He objected to environmental stress caused by humans interfering with nature.
"We should respect nature's rules by restoring the original ecological systems in those regions,'' Gao said.
Following that principle would be the best way tofight sandstorms, he added.
(China Daily March 23, 2002)
