A sandstorm hit northern China on Thursday and is expected to affect Beijing in one or two days, said the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

The sandstorm started early yesterday in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and lasted about nine hours. Airborne particulate matter measured 0.559 mg/m3, a level considered "heavily polluted."

The strong sandstorm is moving quickly and is expected to sweep into Beijing Friday or Saturday, the center said.

Residents of the city and surrounding areas are advised to stay indoors.

The year's first sandstorm struck Beijing in mid-March, with a windy cold front blowing the yellow, dusty haze from Inner Mongolia.

Dust storms and sandstorms hit northern portions of China every spring, and in several areas are becoming increasingly severe. In recent years, such storms have sent dust floating as far away as the Korean peninsula and Japan and have even affected the west coast of the US.

Years of excessive logging and overgrazing, together with weather phenomena, have led to rapid desertification in north and northwest China. The spreading deserts are one of the main causes of the storms.

Almost one-third of China's land mass is now desert.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn April 15, 2005)