Why's the sky so yellow?

When I first got here, I noticed a few things that caused me some concern. On most of the days I have been here, the sky has been very hazy, much like the sky in Southern Ontario on a hot smoggy summer day. I was confused since it is only March and not that warm. There are lots of cars on the road, but this just seemed worse than it should be.

I also noticed several people wearing masks outside. Over the last two weeks, I have seen more and more people wearing these masks. Through several conversations, I have figured out just what is going on.

The yellow stuff consists of dry soil particles from China and apparently most of Eastern Asia experiences the "Yellow Dust" at this time of the year. Over here, this has caused many problems. Trying to run outside has been rough and I've already gotten sick (though that may not be from the dust).

Just one more thing to keep in mind when moving to Korea (or Japan, or China or anywhere else in the general vicinity). Read more about it at Wikipedia.

Yellow Dust on a car