Beijing Goes Dark At Noon: Storm And Smog Meet To Darken Afternoon Sky In China [PHOTOS]

Tiananmen Square, Beijing — A policeman stands beside his motorcycle at Tiananmen Square on a hazy day in Beijing. Reuters

On Tuesday, the anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Beijing was surprisingly dark -- not in a metaphorical sense, but in quite a literal sense as a storm darkened the skies around noon, making an ordinary afternoon look like dusk. The combination of smog and a storm almost completely darkened Beijing. Twitter and Weibo users shared their photos of the day-turned-night sky. Take a look at some of their photos.

Today the rain clouds covered #Beijing turning it as dark as night at times. Looked like the end of the world. twitter.com/MEdmondston/st…
— Matthew Edmondston (@MEdmondston) June 4, 2013

Storm meets smog as Beijing goes dark at noon: shst.me/6g5 twitter.com/shanghaiist/st…
- Shanghaiist.com (@shanghaiist) June 4, 2013

Beijing Days in the Dark. pic.twitter.com/plku7XuGLj
- Joey Kuo (@joeykuo) June 4, 2013

“@LiYuan6: It's high noon in Beijing, but dark as dusk. A storm is approaching. pic.twitter.com/qGHhVmCkEQ”
- Eric Jackson (@ericjackson) June 4, 2013

Dramatically, Beijing is in completely dark at noon. Right now. via @wenyunchao pic.twitter.com/X3FhE5tR85
- Albert Zhang (@AlbertXZhang) June 4, 2013