Dust blankets Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei skies

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster is expected to be blanketed by airborne dust and sand late Monday night and Tuesday from sandstorms sweeping across Northwest China.

In addition to most parts of Gansu province, some areas in the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, along with Shaanxi province, were affected from Sunday night to Monday, according to the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

An Linchang, an engineer at the National Meteorological Center, said sand and dust was expected to arrive in Beijing on Monday night and the dusty air may linger in the capital through Tuesday.