China's smog is so bad you can see it from SPACE

• Satellite image released by NASA shows thick grey smog spreading 750 miles from Beijing to Shanghai
  
• Pollution has reached more than 20 times World Health Organisation guidelines as heavy industry grows
  
• Authorities have ordered planes to fly in just 400-metre visibility and have ordered new buses to cut out smog
  
• Hazards have reduced slightly in Beijing and Shanghai but remain at crisis point in smaller cities like Suzhou
  

China's deadly pollution has joined its Great Wall and achieved the dubious honour of being seen from space.

Fluffy white clouds over the world's fastest-growing economy are surrounded by a thick, grey pall of smog in a satellite photograph which lays bare the perilous state of the country's skies.

Released by NASA, the image, taken on a day pollution reached highly dangerous levels earlier this week, shows a dense band swirling 750 miles from Shanghai to Beijing and billowing out across the East China Sea.