Air Quality Monitoring in Beijing

Having lived in Pasadena, California for four years, I know something about polluted air.  During a visit to Beijing with a group of students. it was clear (pun intended) that Beijing's was at a whole other level. The best description I heard from someone who lived there was "apocalyptic." The Asia Pacific edition of the NY Times has an article on the Chinese government wanting embassies to stop monitoring and tweeting on the air quality in Beijing. The picture with the article is of the Beijing I saw while there in March.  I was told by an American living in Beijing that the readings on the meters are often at the maximum--the readings are off the chart.  China's policy appears to be concentrate on economic growth and then clean up. Come to think about it, that is what most of the industrial countries today did.