The entire country of China is in a festive mood, as it will be celebrating Chinese New Year on January 31, 2014. As always, fireworks will be an important part of the celebrations, as the tradition says that noisy pops and colorful flares ward off evil spirits and more importantly, bring good luck in the upcoming year. However, in 2014, the country is facing a major problem related to smog, which blanketed many cities in China.
With this in mind, officials from the Chinese government have urged people not to use fireworks on January 31, 2014 and it seems that people will be obeying these orders. Even without the festive fireworks, winter is always a bad time for air quality in the country, especially in northern areas of China where coal-fire heating is common.
China?s Environmental Protection Ministry in December 2013 reported that 62 out of 74 cities in the country failed to meet air quality standards for over half the month.
The municipal corporation in Beijing sent SMS messages to many mobile phone users, urging them not to use a lot of fireworks, or none at all. From January 30, 2014, the China Meteorological Administration will start using a daily four-alert fireworks index tied to smog levels in some of the cities.
Photo Credits: Info Hotels
