over the city and they also banned half of beijing's 5 million cars in order to help clear up the skies overhead. the morning of the parade, that was this thursday, the air quality index dropped to a beautiful 17 out of a scale of 500. people even coined the term parade blue because they never get to see that color in the skies. in fact, blue skies are so rare that social media was on fire with some of these beautiful fot to -- photos of the skyline. this is what it looked like on friday once they re-opened the coal-burning power plants and allowed the other 2.5 million cars to re-enter the roadways. let's take it back again. this is what it appeared like on thursday in beijing, a beautiful city. look at those blue skies overhead. again on friday, settling back into that hazy, smoggy grayish look and feel. the air quality index, this is a