How Beijing’s sky changes before and after major political meetings

In a short span of two weeks, China’s most important people attending its biggest political ball of the year have been treated to two vastly different shades of Beijing’s skies.

When the annual plenary sessions began on March 3, the sky was a smoggy grey as the Chinese capital suffered light to medium pollution.

That cleared quickly, however – as if the gods knew the import of the event that had the country’s movers and shakers all gathered in one place at the same time.

Or maybe it was the government’s measures – closing polluting factories and rationing traffic – that had finally kicked in.

It was clear blue skies over the next few days. The air quality index as measured by the US embassy remained largely below 100 for those few precious days.