China Central Television's building amid the sandstorm on Wednesday. [Photo from the Sina Weibo account of financial news website caijing.com.cn]

Sandstorm stalls "Big Pants'" first clean

The sandstorm that hit Beijing on Wednesday not only spread sand and dirt into people's lungs, but was also a major setback for the inaugural cleaning of Beijing's "trousers" – the iconic CCTV building.

"The sandstorm totally ruined the effort to clean the CCTV Big Pants, what a pathetic story, " a web user said jokingly, referring to China Central Television's building, which began cleaning for the first time since it was finished in 2007 the Friday before. The cleaning costs 500,000 yuan ($80,700) and takes 40 days to complete.

The controversial building cost ten billion yuan to build, and has earned the nickname of Beijing's "trousers" because of its unusual shape.

Wednesday's sandstorm was the largest one Beijing has seen for 12 years and pushed PM2.5 to 1000 micrograms per cubic meter.

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