At a glance

Beijing is struggling with heavy smog, and neighboring Tianjin municipality and Hebei province are also having to take measures to cope with the problem. A look at what's happening:

Beijing raised the air pollution alert from yellow to orange, the second-highest level on the emergency scale, on Thursday afternoon. The Ministry of Environmental Protection put the air quality index at 370 at 2 pm, which means the capital is facing serious levels of pollution.

An orange alert requires building sites to halt demolition work, and vehicles carrying construction waste should remain off the road. In addition, some companies are required to cut emissions by 30 percent, while others will have to halt production.