A pile-up involving some 20 cars occurred Wednesday in Dongying city of Shandong Province, as smog enveloped northern China. Fortunately, there were no casualties. A total of 61 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and many others in Hebei and Henan provinces in north and central China, saw in 2017 under a cover of smog. Beijing also issued an orange alert for air pollution.