Smog Jog from Beijing

@ NY Times - A morning run can be the perfect way to overcome jet lag, but usually not when it’s through the choking haze of auto exhaust and industrial discharge. In a Friday morning post, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive,Mark Zuckerberg, announced his arrival in Beijing with a blithe message about what must have been a dizzying jog through the center of China’s capital, which has been suffering from a weeklong bout of hazardous air pollution.

“It’s great to be back in Beijing! I kicked off my visit with a run through Tiananmen Square, past the Forbidden City and over to the Temple of Heaven,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, most likely using a virtual private network to get around the Chinese government Internet filters, which block his site. In a photo accompanying the post, made about 10:30 a.m., Mr. Zuckerberg smiles alongside several running companions in front of the famous portrait of Mao Zedong that overlooks Tiananmen Square.

At 9 a.m. an air-quality monitor at the United States Embassy in Beijing calculated the level of PM2.5, ultrafine particles that damage respiration, at 305 micrograms per cubic meter. That level is deemed “hazardous” under American air-quality standards.

Beijing US Embassy AQI: Beijing US Embassy Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI).

81	Moderate Updated on Wed. 18:00 Primary pollutant: o3

current		past 2 days	min	max
PM10 AQI	78		28	114
O3 AQI	81		1	94
NO2 AQI	13		6	40
SO2 AQI	6		3	11
CO AQI	13		4	15
Temp.	24		6	33
Pressure	995		994	1007
Humidity	41		11	87
Wind	4		0	8