What is all this fluff in Beijing's air right now?

Spring in Beijing is short, lovely and covered in white fluff

Spring in Beijing is short and lovely and, in the next week or two, will be covered in white fluff. The annual invasion of drifting catkins looks pretty at first but then, when you're out trying to enjoy your happy warm spring days, it's suddenly in your eyes, in your nose, in your mouth when you're trying to talk or, you know, breathe.

Basically, it's a bit of a menace.

Luckily, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry is on it. According to state news agency Xinhua, authorities have said that, 'Beijing will plant no more female poplars or willows in its urban area in the next five years to reduce catkins.' As female trees are the ones that produce the fluffy fuzz, a decline in the number of female trees should help alleviate the issue.

Your sneezes will probably be less cute and less viral than this panda's.

Beginning in the 1980s, around 3 million poplar and willow trees were planted along roadsides throughout Beijing with little to no attention paid to tree gender ratio. That wasn't a problem up until a few years ago when tonnes of the female trees reached their mature period, causing a catkin-aggedon. The efforts of Beijing's forestry services will be concentrated around schools, kindergartens, hospitals and residential compounds.

Want to see (proper) spring flowers in Beijing? Hit 'Read more'.

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