Photos: Cities and villages surrounded by pollution (14)

（People's Daily Online） 07:51, January 17, 2013

Tian'anmen is partly seen amid thick fog in Beijing on Jan. 11, 2013. (Xinhua/Gong Lei)

Edited and translated by Huang Jin, People's Daily Online

The heavy smog and haze enveloped Beijing since Jan. 8, 2013, pushing the pollution index to a record high. The density of PM2.5 — air particles smaller than 2.5 microns and able to enter the lungs and even the blood stream — climbs higher than 900 micrograms per cubic meter in several districts in the capital, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center. That's the highest level recorded since Beijing began publishing the data in early 2012.

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