CRI听力:Smog Persists during National Day Holiday

In Beijing, visibility was less than 1,000 meters in the downtown area last Sunday.

Expressways in Beijing and Tianjin were closed down and several flights were cancelled.

One Beijing resident says something needs to be done about the pollution.

"I think it could be better. More and more people are now discussing this issue on the internet; the government is meant to have taken measures."

Zhang Fanghua, chief weather forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, says the smog is mainly a result of weather conditions.

"The cold front that influences North China is weak. High humidity and an absence of wind in the surface layer allow pollutants to stay in the air."

Zhang Fanghua also notes that the smog cannot be easily dissipated due to the special geographical conditions of North China.

Meanwhile, a rising number of netizens question that the number of cars hitting the road in Beijing did shrink during the National Day Holiday, but the smog still persisted.

However,Wang Yuesi, professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says most car owners conducted their driving tours within the North China region.

"Most of the people driving on tours are conducting short-distance travel and the cars are congested on the expressways."

Aside from car pollution, Wang adds that even though most workplaces were closed during the holiday period, the main source of pollution in the North China region, which emanates from coal-fired industries, remained constant.

"More than 280 million tons of coal is burnt a year in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. In Shandong, fired coal reaches 380 million tons a year. The amount of fired coal mentioned accounts for over 20 percent of coal burnt nationwide. The steel and power plants are still operating during the holiday. That means the main source of pollution has not disappeared."

Wang Yuesi also suggests that in order to tackle pollution effectively, related enterprises should speed up putting purification equipment into use in a bid to control the primary pollution source.

China has recently issued a 1.75 trillion yuan plan to tackle the worsening air pollution, pledging to improve air quality within five years.

Beijing authorities say the city will build four natural gas power stations by the end of 2014 to replace those currently burning coal.

For CRI, I' m Xie Zhao.