Chinese livid with pollution-choked Beijing

BEIJING -- Millions of Chinese went online on Tuesday to vent their anger over the thick smog that has blanketed Beijing in recent days, raising health fears and causing hundreds of flights to be canceled.

Sales of face masks were reported to have surged as residents of China's heavily polluted capital sought to protect themselves from the air, which U.S. embassy figures ranked as "very unhealthy."

Beijing's main airport canceled hundreds of flight because of poor visibility on Sunday and Monday, angering passengers at the world's second-busiest airport.

Visibility improved yesterday, but 89 domestic and 11 international flights had been canceled or delayed by late afternoon.

Users of Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog, expressed frustration at travel delays, with one saying it had taken him 24 hours, instead of four, to travel to Beijing from the southern city of Shenzhen.

"They are treating citizens as idiots," a middle-aged man wrote sarcastically. "The city looks like a fairyland but thanks to the government, it is only 'slight pollution.' "

"I'm exhausted. All of this was because of the thick smog," wrote Hu Yueyue in one of 4.4 million comments about pollution posted yesterday.

Taobao.com, China's biggest online retailer, sold 30,000 face masks equipped with air filters on Sunday, when the U.S. embassy in Beijing rated the air as "hazardous", the state-run Xinhua news agency said.