The first ever red alert issued by Beijing for smog is now lifted Thursday where sunshine penetrated through China's capital along with the presence of blue skies that replaced the thick, toxic haze that smothered the city for days.

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The Chinese government now set its air pollution emergency plan earlier this week where they banned almost half of the private vehicles on Tuesday from the streets and ordered many factories to close down where schools also suspended classes for students to stay home.

The red alert was lifted around midday Thursday according to an online post by Beijing's environmental protection bureau.The red alert was carried out as the highest warning of its kind from a four color warning system, when heavy smog covered the entire city for the second time around, lingering for many weeks to come.

This unprecedented strategy resulted from intense public criticism which was focused on last week's equally deadly haze where the city did not carry out the necessary warnings to protect its citizens. 

Harmful and toxic microparticles that can penetrate deep inside lungs known as PM2.5 reached a whopping more than 600 micrograms per cubic meter last week according to the United States Embassy that issues independent readings, and on other days, the measurements were above 300.

On Thursday afternoon, levels were as low as 15 times as moderate winds arrived from the north, which was also below the World Health Organization's safe maximum exposure limit of 25.

Much of this air pollution apparently originates from neighboring regions where their pollution levels remained at a hazardous rate, specifically the southern region of Hebei province.

Social media posts about this air pollution read as one traveller posted how the central province of Hubei and every city in northern China are covered by smog and looking like dead towns. According to data from Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba, searches for air purifiers and masks were on the rise among regions that are suffering from this heavy smog pollution this month compared to other provinces. 

NASA satellite images even captured this deadly, massive haze covering northeastern China and was seen from outer space. In addition, the Chinese meteorological bureau also announced that it will have at least one or another two incidents of this type of heavy pollution in December, where the first one is expected to hit on Saturday.

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