Families in Beijing waited anxiously on Monday evening to hear whether schools would shut the next day, posing sudden child-care challenges, after the city issued its first-ever red alert for heavy smog about 6:30 p.m., advising school closures in an effort to protect students’ health and reduce traffic on the roads, among other measures. Finally, around 10 p.m., teachers at one prominent Beijing elementary school contacted parents on WeChat, the Chinese messaging app: The city’s education commission had ordered schools to close for three days. “At last. I’ve been waiting,” responded a mother with the WeChat handle “haohao.” China’s air pollution problem is a focus of considerable anger. Despite the significance of the city’s first red alert, the smog this week is not the worst the […]