Smog in Beijing: 'Doctors tell you not to go outside'

Sometimes the smog enveloping Beijing is dry and tinged with yellow; on other days it's a misty kind of soup. In the early summer there are the sandstorms which whip up dust bearing poisonous particles.

All three kinds of pollution leave you with sore eyes, feeling a bit chesty, and prone to all kinds of infections, from cold sores to flu.

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There are days when doctors tell you, if you can, not to go out, which means another by-product of Beijing smog is the depressing fact that your three-year-old son has to miss another play date because the air is so bad.

There are days when it's hard to see the fabulous outlines of the Forbidden City through the smog choking Beijing's boulevards, as the coal-fired power plants on the city outskirts crank out the power to run the city.

The city's soundtrack on polluted days is coughing and wheezing - one of the things visitors complain about is people clearing their throats and spitting everywhere.

The World Bank, which says 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China, estimates that 400,000 people here die a year from air pollution-related illnesses.

Environmentalists fear pollution levels in China could more than quadruple within 15 years if it does not curb its rapid growth in energy consumption and cool its love affair with the car. There are now 2.5 million cars on the streets of Beijing.

China is the world's second-biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions and is expected to overtake the United States as the biggest, bringing acid rain to roughly a third of the country and poisoning nearly three quarters of rivers and lakes.

People all over the country have rioted and held demonstrations over pollution damaging their crops in the countryside and affecting children's health. Smog is a much bigger issue among Chinese people than democracy, internet freedom, censorship or the right to worship. Breathing comes first.