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Workers clean the facade of a shopping mall in central Beijing, April 6.
Andy Wong / AP
Delegates extend many hands at China’s changing of the guard
A Chinese hostess, who serves delegates of National People's Congress, supervises her colleagues posing for a souvenir photograph on Tiananmen Square during a plenary session of the NPC at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on March 8. The outgoing head of China's legislature has praised the body for upholding the ruling Communist Party's leading role and for rejecting Western models of multiparty democracy.
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Lunar New Year festivities drawing to a close
How Hwee Young / EPA
A Chinese boy stands in front of a tree with light decorations celebrating the Lantern Festival in a shopping area in Beijing, China, on Feb. 23. The Lantern Festival will fall on Feb. 24, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, which also marks the end of the new year festivities.
Chaiwat Subprasom / Reuters
The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, begins on Feb. 10 and marks the start of the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese zodiac.
Relentless smog hangs over parts of China
Aly Song / Reuters
A couple wearing a mask and a scarf visits the Bund in front of Pudong Lujiazui financial area on a hazy day in Shanghai on Jan. 16.
Wu Hong / EPA
Waste gas is discharged into the air by an oil refinery plant in Qingdao city, eastern China's Shandong province, on Jan. 16.
Aly Song / Reuters
Travel photos are displayed in a photography service shop at the Bund in front of Pudong Lujiazui financial area on a hazy day in Shanghai on Jan. 16. Chinese media said on Monday the government had to take urgent action to tackle air pollution, which has blanketed parts of the country at dangerous levels in recent days, and one newspaper called for a re-think of a "fixation" on economic growth.
Jianan Yu / Reuters
Children are put on drips as many of them are diagnosed with respiratory diseases at a provincial children's hospital in Hefei, Anhui province on Jan. 16. Days after choking smog blanketed China's capital, the country's premier-designate added his voice to appeals to curb the toxic haze, but he offered few specifics and said there was no quick fix. Particulate matter with a 2.5 micrometer diameter, known as PM2.5, can cause cardiopulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infection, according to the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.
Blind growth in China is the cause of the smog that has smothered Chinese cities including Beijing for a week, the government said on Jan. 16 in its first comment on the worsening air quality. Inefficient production methods and the weather were behind the thick, grey air, Vice Prime Minister Li Keqiang was quoted as saying by the state-owned China News Service. 'It warns us once again that we cannot continue the inefficient economic growth model,' he said. Years of rapid growth have vaulted Communist China into second place among the world's largest economies but often at the expense of the environment. The smog has limited visibility, cancelled flights, kept people indoors and sent them to hospitals with breathing, heart and circulation problems.
-- European Pressphoto Agency
Related: Severe Beijing smog prompts unusual transparency
Feng Li / Getty Images
A tourist looks at the Forbidden City as pollution covers the city on Jan. 16 in Beijing.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
- Children line up for flu treatment in Beijing as smog may worsen health issues
- Robot staff at restaurant in China delights customers
- China landslide kills dozens, more remain missing
- Hot colors light up frozen sculptures at the Harbin ice festival
- Taking a full load: Potential students crowd in for entrance exams in China
Children line up for flu treatment in Beijing as smog may worsen health issues
AFP - Getty Images
Parents watch over their children under a row of intravenous drips at a hospital for flu treatment in Beijing on Jan. 13.
AFP - Getty Images
Nurses attend to a young child in a hospital for flu treatment in Beijing on Jan. 13.
According to the Global Times, heavy pollution like the smog that hit Beijing this past weekend could exacerbate the flu season in China, experts say. The pollutants lower residents’ ability to combat the flu and the virus is more likely to remain in the air after an infected person sneezes.
Public anger in China over dangerous levels of air pollution spread on Jan. 14 as state media editorials questioned official transparency and the nation's breakneck development.
-- Agence France-Presse
Related: 'Worst' smog ever hitting Beijing, environmentalists say
AFP - Getty Images
Nurses attend to a baby in a hospital for flu treatment in Beijing on Jan. 13.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
- Robot staff at restaurant in China delights customers
- China landslide kills dozens, more remain missing
- Hot colors light up frozen sculptures at the Harbin ice festival
- Taking a full load: Potential students crowd in for entrance exams in China
- 'I want to wash diapers': Groom's parents get in wedding spirit
Stuck behind the scenes as China's leadership changes hands
Clockwise from top left: Carlos Barria / Reuters, Ng Han Guan / AP, Alexander F. Yuan / AP, How Hwee Young / EPA
Scenes from the corridors and anterooms of the Great Hall of the People during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
By Le Li, NBC News
BEIJING — More than a thousand reporters turned up at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, expecting to cover the closing session of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Congress where the final leadership line-up would be revealed. But they soon discovered the election of the country's new leaders had ended before they had even entered the main conference hall.
Instead, they heard about the results the same way everyone else did: from state news agency Xinhua.
Xinhua live-blogged the event – both in Chinese on Sina Weibo and in English on Twitter, even though the latter is still blocked in China. When the news agency posted a message that President Hu Jintao was casting a vote, the journalists were all stuck in the long corridors of the Great Hall of the People.
Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images
Journalists wait in a corridor to be allowed access to the main hall during the closing ceremony of the Communist Party Congress on November 14, 2012.
I was one of them. By then, we had been waiting for over 10 minutes. Most of the others had been in the Great Hall of the People for almost three hours, but I was in good spirits, joking with the journalists around me about when we'd be allowed in.
When I saw Xinhua’s tweet announcing that Hu would be casting his vote, those feelings evaporated. There was nothing we could do – the line of reporters still wasn't moving. I could feel the temperature rising around me.
China's communists pick country's new leader
Clockwise from top left: Vincent Yu / AP, Wang Zhao / AFP - Getty Images, David Gray / Reuters, David Gray / Reuters
Scenes from the Great Hall of the People during the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Xinhua started reporting that Vice-President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang had been elected as members of the Central Committee, the highest authority in the party. Although we had shuffled forward a bit, we were still outside the entrance to the main hall. Some journalists didn’t even bother to wait in line and sat around with the conference hall staff pouring themselves tea.
Le Li / NBC News
Surrounded by tea cups, a reporter rests while waiting in the bowels of the Great Hall of the People.
I tried posting the news on Weibo but the name “Xi Jinping” was blocked.
“Was the previous Party Congress like this, too?” a man asked someone behind me.
A woman replied, “No, I came here ten years ago. It was not like this at all.”
I turned around and saw they were reporters for a local Chinese news website. “Can you tell me what’s different?” I asked.
She took one look at my press pass and stopped talking. On my pass, it was clearly written in big Chinese characters: “USA.” She turned her head away.
Carlos Barria / Reuters
Security personnel sitting as they guard different areas of the Great Hall of the People.
Communist Party's Congress grinds on amid widespread indifference in China
I tried checking Weibo again but there were no updates from Xinhua. Instead, I heard a quarrel at the entrance. Some photographers were arguing with security guards who were trying to block the half-open entrance. One guard yelled, “No one is allowed to enter!”
Eager to know what was going on, I pushed to the front of the line. Suddenly, the entrance opened and the grand, cavernous Great Hall of the People lay before us.
Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images
The closing ceremony of the Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People on November 14, 2012.
From my distant vantage point, I aimed my camera at the stage and started madly snapping photos.
But which one was Xi Jinping? All of the men were wearing the same clothes. The only person who stood out was Liu Yandong – a woman, and she was wearing bright blue.
Yawns and other expressions of boredom as China's Communist Party Congress begins
I looked at my phone and read Xinhua’s final tweets. “The voting concludes,” Xinhua said. “The new Central Committee of the Communist Party Congress and the new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection have been elected. The hall filled with great applause.”
Le Li / NBC News
Reporters taking pictures of cars parked in the courtyard of the Great Hall of the People.
It was all over.
All I had done was wait around in a corridor and take some pictures – along with every other journalist there. The best shot was of the courtyard, where more than 50 Audis were parked. Everyone else took the same photo and posted it on Twitter. The pictures were deleted within minutes, after netizens questioned why the Chinese leaders did not drive their own national brand, Red Flag.
One blogger noticed a Lexus among the Audis and commented, “One is even Japanese brand.”
We might not have been able to report on the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Congress, but at least we could prove that the Audi is the Chinese leadership’s car of choice.
Read more about China on NBC's Behind the Wall
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Carlos Barria / Reuters
Black Audi cars fill a parking lot inside the Great Hall of the People.
David Gray / Reuters
The Forbidden City's light and shade
Shadows of trees are cast onto a wall of the Forbidden City as a man walks past on a cold, sunny day in Beijing on November 13, 2012.
See more pictures of China on PhotoBlog and get more insights about the country on NBC's Behind the Wall.
Inspirations unveiled at China Fashion Week
Feng Li / Getty Images
A model is prepped backstage before revealing part of the SEC Qi Gang Collection during China Fashion Week in Beijing, China, Oct. 26, 2012. China Fashion Week runs Oct. 24 to Nov. 3.
Ed Jones / AFP - Getty Images
A Model waits backstage prior to the SEC Qi Gang fashion show during China Fashion Week in Beijing on Oct. 26.
Lintao Zhang / Getty Images
A model receives final touches to her outfit during the SEC Qi Gang Collection of China Fashion Week in Beijing, Oct. 26.
Andy Wong / AP
Apple opens fifth store in mainland China, its largest in Asia
People walk down spiral steps in a newly-opened Apple Store in the Wangfujing shopping district of Beijing, China, Oct. 20. Apple Computer opened its fifth store in mainland China, and it is the largest in Asia.
Beijing imparts traditional Chinese opera to youth
Andy Wong / AP
A girl is applied with makeup before training at a summer camp organized by the Peking Opera House in Beijing, China on Aug. 14, 2012. The two-day course is held to attract public interest in the traditional Chinese performance.
Andy Wong / AP
A girl is applied with makeup before training at a summer camp organized by the Peking Opera House in Beijing on Aug. 14.
Andy Wong / AP
A kid wears a monkey mask during a summer camp organized by the Peking Opera House in Beijing on Aug. 14.
Andy Wong / AP
School children learn traditional Chinese Peking Opera during a summer camp organized by the Peking Opera House in Beijing on Aug. 14.
Andy Wong / AP
Participants watch a performer during a Peking Opera summer camp organized by the Peking Opera House in Beijing on Aug. 14.
Dozens killed in China floods
AFP - Getty Images
A man jumps across a flooded path on the outskirts of Chongqing, China on July 22, 2012. More torrential rain is forecast in China's northeast and southwest.
AFP - Getty Images
Residents try to get through a residential alley which is blocked by a taxi which was washed there after a storm hit the city, blowing off rooftops which killed two people and injured six others, in Beijing on July 22, 2012 .
Ching Chin / EPA
Cars submerged in floodwaters around a residential block after heavy rains in Beijing on July 21, 2012. Photo made available to NBCNews.com on July 23, 2012.
China Daily via Reuters
A rescue boat approaches a partially submerged car on a flooded highway after heavy rainfalls hit Fangshan District in Beijing, July 22, 2012.
Reuters reports from Beijing — The Chinese capital's heaviest rainstorm in six decades killed at least 37 people, flooded streets and stranded 80,000 people at the main airport, state media and the government said on Sunday.
The storm, which started on Saturday afternoon and continued late into the night, flooded major roads and sent torrents of water tumbling down steps into underpasses. Read the full story.
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Joe Chan / Reuters
Heavy rains, flooding plague Beijing
Rescuers and residents stand next to a stranded car being pulled up from a flooded street under the Guangqumen overpass amid heavy rainfall in Beijing, July 21. According to local media, a driver of another submerged car was confirmed dead at the hospital. The heaviest rain in 61 years that lashed Beijing Saturday has left at least four people dead and six others injured, cutting off traffic and also severely disrupting air travel, Xinhua News Agency reported.