Beijing was shrouded in heavy smog on Thursday (December 18, 2025) with Air Quality Index (AQI) climbing to “very unhealthy” levels of 215, a rare spike in pollution in the Chinese capital after years of expensive cleaning up.
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China's national observatory on Wednesday (December 17, 2025) issued a yellow alert for heavy fog in some parts of the country, saying that thick fog is expected to shroud parts of Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hubei, the Sichuan Basin and Chongqing on Thursday (December 18, 2025).
The smog with polluted air quality is rare these days in Beijing, which used to witness very heavy pollution before the government initiated a series of steps, including closure and relocation of heavy polluting industries in 2016, spending billions of dollars.
Officials say the city’s switch to natural gas or electric public heating in winters from the coal-fired ones, spending over $1 billion, has helped reduce pollution levels.
