The new measurement of particles of 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, or PM2.5, comes after growing attention to air quality in Beijing, one of the world’s most heavily polluted capitals, from Chinese as well as foreigners.

“So that the people can form a relatively complete understanding of the Beijing air quality, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center will publish hourly 2.5 data from January 21,” the center said on its website, www.bjmemc.com.cn.

On Saturday, a clear crisp day that contrasted with the thick smog earlier in the week, the Beijing Center reported between 0.003 micrograms-0.062 microgram per cubic meter of PM2.5 particles in the air, Xinhua said.

“It shows that the government is responding to popular concerns about air pollution,” said Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing air pollution since 2006.

“It’s a recognition by the government that the way it was monitored and reported in the past didn’t reflect people’s perception of how serious the problem is.”

The data will be collected from a monitoring station in the Chegongzhuang area of the second ring road, which encircles the center city, the Xinhua news agency said.

Chinese experts had earlier criticized as “unscientific” a single monitoring point on the roof of the U.S. Embassy, which releases hourly air quality data via a widely followed Twitter feed.

China previously disclosed readings only of pollutant particles that are 10 micrometers in diameter or larger. Doctors warn that the tiny floating PM 2.5 particles can settle in the lungs more easily and cause respiratory problems and other illnesses.

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Embassy labeled the air pollution in Beijing as hazardous after its PM2.5 reading topped its maximum reading of 500 micrograms per cubic meter.

A reading of 250 or above over a 24-hour period is hazardous, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian said in December that China would begin nationwide collecting of PM2.5 data from 2016.

While Beijingers complain, serious soil and water pollution also plagues the rest of the country.

On Saturday, firefighters in the southern region of Guangxi sprayed 80 tons of aluminum chloride, a neutralizing agent, into the Longjiang River after levels of the heavy metal cadmium were found to be three times the official limit, Xinhua said.

A heavy fog blanketed parts of northern China on Monday, delaying flights and causing hundreds of cancellations, while smog hung in a dark haze over Beijing.

As of 2 p.m. (0600 GMT), 126 flights had been delayed by an hour or longer and 207 were cancelled at Beijing, the world’s second-busiest airport, Xinhua news agency said.

The Beijing sky was so dark that many drivers kept their headlights on throughout the day, giving the city an eerie, netherworld feeling.

“Such super foggy weather looks like the end of the world,” commented one microblogger using the name David Jiaoxiaomao.

China’s national weather forecaster said the fog was likely to persist across parts of China to Wednesday, causing more transport disruptions. By then, a cold front would begin dispersing the fog, said the forecaster, according to Xinhua.

Highways across the northern provinces of Shandong and Hebei were also closed.

In Beijing, the fog has been made worse by pollution. Readings by the U.S. Embassy, which measures inhalable particles of 2.5 microns, have described the pollution for days as “hazardous”.

On Sunday night, the U.S. Embassy’s index topped its ceiling of 500, and it was 356 on Monday afternoon, a reading that was still considered “dangerous”.

The Beijing environmental bureau, however, said the air was affected by only “light pollution” during the day.

Chinese environmental officials have come under criticism in media reports and on microblogs for reporting only measurements of much larger particles in the air.

Du Shaozhong, a deputy head of the bureau, warned on his microblog that residents should take precautions if pollution rises to “medium” levels, as it has during the night, when the government’s central heating furnaces pour smoke into the air.

Commenting for the first time after the border talks slated to be held in New Delhi on November 28-29 were put off, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a media briefing here that the two countries were in the process of finalising dates and agenda.

“China pays great attention to the 15th meeting of Special Representatives on the China-India boundary issue. At the moment the two sides are in communication on specific date of the meeting,” he said.

Asked whether China pressed India to cancel the international Buddhist conference being held in New Delhi and which is to be addressed by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, Hong said “I want to point out that the Dalai Lama is not a pure religious figure but the one who has been engaged in the separatist activities for long time under the pretext of religion”.

Numerous China-based companies have listed their shares on TMX’s two stock markets for several years, giving them opportunities to raise funds from capital markets and increase their profile with Western investors.

However, some of those Chinese companies are under scrutiny following allegations and questions about the accuracy of their financial reports. None of the investigations have been completed.

“Opening an office in Beijing underscores our commitment to ensuring that the benefits of the Canadian capital markets are well understood around the world,” said TMX Group chief executive Tom Kloet.

“The opening of the TSX office in Beijing demonstrates the opportunities that Canadian businesses see to further their relationship with the People’s Republic of China. It creates an important bridge between our respective capital markets and brings our market participants closer together.”

The Toronto-based company, which owns the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange and several other more specialized markets, said the Beijing office is also part of TMX’s efforts to raise its profile internationally.

The TMX opened a international office in London earlier this year. The TMX and London Stock Exchange Group attempted to create a merger of equals to create a transatlantic organization but the deal fell through.

TMX Group is currently working on an all-Canadian deal to be acquired by the 13-member Maple Group, which includes several pension funds, banks and other partners in the financial services industry.

A “hazardous” rating by the US embassy, whose evaluation of the city’s air quality often differs markedly from the official Chinese rating, is the worst on a six-point scale and indicates the whole population is likely to be affected.

The embassy has rated Beijing’s air quality as hazardous on several occasions this month. On October 9, the reading was listed as “beyond index”, meaning it went above measurable levels.

By contrast, China’s environment ministry said Beijing’s air was just “slightly polluted” on Sunday — the most recent data available, sparking a debate in China’s state-run media and on the Internet.

Even the usually nationalist Global Times newspaper on Monday demanded an explanation for the disparity, urging the government to “be cooperative in avoiding confusing information” about air pollution.

“Figures by some local governments show the air pollution index is dropping in some cities, such as Beijing… But some Beijing citizens complain the figures do not match their experience,” it said in an editorial.

Residents of the capital expressed their fears over the effects on their health on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter, with some reporting breathing difficulties and dizziness. “The pollution reading was again hazardous this morning. We are inhaling poisons,” wrote a blogger under the name Xuemanzi.

In April, Beijing launched a five-year action plan to improve the environment by phasing out coal-fired boilers, saying it wanted excellent or good air conditions for 80 percent of the days in the year by 2015.

Few of the people for whom Tongzhou was built — residents in overcrowded downtown Beijing — live there.

Instead, thousands of young, middle-class and blue-collar migrants from poorer parts of China have moved in, contending with the lack of amenities and the daily jam of cars on the highway into Beijing, which now has a population nearly that of Australia’s.

Far from being an easy fix to housing Beijing’s soaring population, Tongzhou and other satellite hubs in the capital have created new headaches for planners.

“Everyone who has moved here from inner Beijing regrets it,” said a 52-year-old man surnamed Wang who has lived in the Tongzhou area all his life.

“People don’t have faith in the education and medical services here, nor does the area have enough businesses,” he said. “They can’t develop real careers in Tongzhou, so eight out of 10 still work downtown.”

Wang’s complaints underscore the plight of Beijing city planners and counterparts around the country, where China’s breakneck urbanization leads a world set to reach 7 billion people by the end of the month, according to United Nations estimates, and 9 billion by 2050.

Beijing is among the world’s most populous cities, though population rankings vary widely. It has swelled by about 10 million people in the past decade, a trend mirrored worldwide, particularly in developing nations.

Home idol Li was bundled out in straight sets at the weekend by qualifier Monica Niculescu of Romania, earning the wrath of China’s tennis fans.

With constant carping at her lack of a major title despite holding WTA number-one honours for the last year, Dane Wozniacki can understand what her Chinese rival must be facing.

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, presided over the meeting, which is a major gathering of Party leadership prior to the Sixth Plenary Session of the CPC’s Seventeenth Central Committee scheduled to convene in the nation’s capital on Oct. 15 to 18.

“China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and our position is based on full historical and jurisprudential evidence,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hong Lei told a media briefing here today.