January 28, 2008 - 1:00am
By Rebecca Shoval
On one day in late December, the view from an airplane window at the Beijing airport was clouded by air so thick with pollution it was white. Walking out of the airport was like walking into a crowd of smokers, intensified by the large numbers of people smoking cigarettes as they waited in lines for cabs and buses.
The following day, the pollution ranked 500 out of a maximum 500 on a government scale. About 10 years ago, Beijing developed the Blue Sky days program to monitor air pollution above the city. The highest rating in the Blue Sky system is 500, but the pollution level could actually be higher than the rating system goes.
