United response to help as smog on way in Beijing area

The country's top environmental agency has suggested that 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and neighboring provinces coordinate their efforts, such as issuing orange alerts at the same time, to cope with the coming bouts of severe smog.

While Beijing residents experienced blue skies on Friday, severe air pollution was approaching the region and was expected to linger until Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

"Air quality in Beijing will get worse starting Saturday night and pollution will peak on Monday, reaching the most severe level (of the six-tiered air quality system)," Sun Feng, chief forecaster of Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, said on Friday.