Smog reappeared in the Chinese capital this week, half a month after the close of the Beijing Paralympics.

Friday's Beijing Times said the air in the city remained polluted for three successive days, citing pollution indexes for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 106, 104 and 126, respectively.

The air quality would turn for the better during the daytime on Friday, and the pollution index was predicted to be between 50 and 70, the newspaper said.

The reappearance of the smog was blamed on such factors as the lifting of some provisional environmental protection measures taken to ensure good air quality during the Olympics and Paralympics, the restarting of work at construction sites, and the return of heavily-polluting vehicles on the roads.

There were 208 blue sky days this year as of Tuesday, 22 more than that for the same period last year, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau website.

(Xinhua News Agency October 5, 2008)