New Delhi: The massive capital city of China banned around 2.5 million cars for two weeks to clear the sky for a prestigious military parade. As soon as the parade marking the defeat of Japan in World War II was over, the ban was lifted and it took less than 24 hours to pollute the sky again.
Two weeks preceding the grand parade, the government imposed the ban where it asked the 5 million cars in the city to drive every alternate day. The measure which started late August, suspended the operations of 12,255 coal-burning boilers, factories and cement-mixing stations.
This paid off well for the city.
The Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures the sternness of air pollution, came out to be 17 out of 500, a very healthy result. The residents were also very excited about it and termed the blue sky as ‘parade blue'.
According to Zhang Dawei, head of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center, “It was as good as the annual index in some metropolises in developed countries, such as Paris, London, Moscow and Singapore.”
But it did not last long. On Friday, the 4th of September, the residents woke up to the dull sky and not the clear one which had graced the city for two weeks.
Locals in Beijing were very disheartened to see the blue sky gone. The masses took to Sina Weibo, the country's most popular microblogging website, to display their sadness.
One of them wrote, “The Military Parade Blue went away in a snap — it feels like such a mystery, like making magic.”
“May I ask, is the Military Parade Blue a result of human control? Can we control it for a few more days? Can we also control when it snows and when it rains? Can we also control the weather?,” asked another.
