Beijing turns yellow as city sees worst sandstorm in years, locals share scary visuals: Watch

The Chinese capital Beijing was shrouded in thick brown dust on Monday morning as a result of heavy winds blowing in from Inner Mongolia and other parts of northwestern China.

The Chinese capital Beijing was shrouded in thick brown dust on Monday morning as a result of heavy winds blowing in from Inner Mongolia and other parts of northwestern China. Nothing like starting the week with a solid Beijing sandstorm @Quicktake pic.twitter.com/eeuzkfvZwA People are recording the sand storm this morning in #Beijing... #weather pic.twitter.com/enmPjY8NrM Huge #Sandstorm In Beijing now, have not seen this in past ten years. pic.twitter.com/RJ7IZAsQ73 The China Meteorological Administration announced a yellow alert on Monday morning, saying that the sandstorms had spread from Inner Mongolia into the provinces of Gansu, Shanxi and Hebei, which surrounds Beijing. Beijing's official air quality index reached a maximum level of 500 on Monday morning, with floating particles known as PM10 reaching 2,000 micrograms per cubic metre in some districts.