Air pollution levels were literally off the charts  in Beijing over the weekend, reportedly reducing visibility  to about 100 yards in some areas. The air has been classified hazardous to human health for many days, at its worst hitting pollution levels 25 times that considered safe in the U. S. The entire city is blanketed  in a thick grey smog, leading to official warnings to stay inside. At least four deaths have been blamed on what Chinese media calls the "smoggy weather"--including two high school students who were hit by a train due to low visibility. The smog has affected more than 30 cities in China. The air quality is so bad--some foreigners in China have been referring to it on social media as the "Airpocalypse "--that government media have been joining Internet users in questioning China's rapid path to economic growth. Unusually, the pollution is getting headline treatment on local news bulletins and in the domestic  media. Since the beginning of the year, the government has been releasing hourly pollution readings for 74 Chinese cities, almost half of which are now showing severe pollution. In the Chinese media, there's been some soul-searching  about why the problem has been so serious. The China Daily took the country's rapid urbanization  process to task , commenting in an editorial, "The air quality in big cities could have been better had more attention been paid to the density  of high rises, had more trees been planted in proportion  to the number of residential areas, and had the number of cars been strictly controlled." Meanwhile, the Global Tunes has been pointing out China's role as the global factory and the "biggest construction site in the world." The Los Angeles Times reports fuel, standards in China allow for three times the amount of poisonous sulfur  as in the United States, and five times as much compared to European standards. The passage is mainly dealing with
the smoggy weather in Beijing the severe air pollution in China China's economic growth and pollution Chinese government media's attitudes toward air pollution