Sandstorm engulfs northern China (2)

Cars are seen driving on the road during morning rush hour in a sandstorm in Beijing on March 15, 2021. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/chinadaily.com.cn]

Beijing cancels hundreds of flights due to sandstorm

The Beijing Capital International Airport canceled 247 flights and the Beijing Daxing International Airport 181 flights by 9:30am Monday due to the sandstorm, according to the flight information app Hangban Guanjia.

The total planned inbound and outbound flights in the capital airport for today was 1,141, which means more than 20 percent of the flights have been canceled, data from the app showed, reported Jiemian.com, a local news portal.

For the Daxing airport, the total number of planed inbound and outbound flights for today was 846 and 21.39 percent of them have been canceled, it added.

Visibility remained low in Beijing as the municipal observatory issued a yellow alert.

The yellow alert, or the second-lowest level in the four-tier weather alert system (red, orange, yellow and blue from the most severe level to the least), was issued at 7:35 am by the Beijing Meteorological Service on Monday.

It said the sandstorm will continue during the day time and the visibility will be lower than 1,000 meters at the noon.

At 9am Monday, the city's level of PM10 particles reached 8,108 micrograms per cubic meter at six major urban districts, with the city seeing heavy pollution.