By Sunting Huang BBD News
5 hours ago | China
One of Beijing residents woke up to find out a Santa Claus is dead in his fireplace, though more than 100 million people across China had been warned to stay indoors.
Counts of PM2.5 - harmful miscroscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs - in Beijing peaked at 620 micrograms per cubic metre as of late Friday night, according to date from the US embassy.
The World Health Organization's recommented maximum exposure is 25 micrograms over a 24-hour period.
"Santa Claus, who we think arrived in Beijing at around 12 P.M., could have got too much hazardous smog as he got in the house through the chimney,"said the spokesman of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Beijing issued its second red alert on Dec 18, while the first ever red alert was released just earlier this month.
"In this kind of weather, can Santa even find Beijing?" a user wrote yesterday evening on Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter.
In the neighbouring city of Tianjin, no fewer than 19 freeways were closed early Friday morning, according to the Tianjin Freeway Management Office's official microblog, with CCTV television reporting visibility of less than five metres (15 feet).
"Santa can't even get to Tianjin! I was wondering why my stocking had no gifts in it! Smog you better get out of here!"said another Weibo commentor.
China is one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses, due to numerous coal-fired plants that have fueled its rise as a global economic superpower.
The Chinese government has vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and was supportive of the recently global climate change deal reached in Paris.