Three months later Ghielmetti had a new partner: Beijing Zarsion Holdings Group, a small, private developer from Inner Mongolia.

FORBES: Building Out (of China): Property Tycoons Follow Wealthy Customers Overseas

Beijing's environment agency blamed large amounts of dust blowing in on strong winds from Inner Mongolia, and urged people to stay indoors.

BBC: Smog and sandstorm engulf China's capital

These huge, sky-blackening dust storms sweep across Asia in March and April, bringing with them millions of tons of sand from inner Mongolia and depositing it in China and on across the Korean peninsula to Japan.

CNN: Desertification: How to stop the shifting sands

Oh, what pleasure to plug in my three-pin British plug the other evening in Inner Mongolia, so very far from home.

BBC: A universal plug socket... at last?

The Chinese government is spending millions of dollars on clean energy initiatives ranging from the construction of charging stations for electric vehicles in several major cities to massive wind farms in Inner Mongolia and offshore in the Pacific Ocean.

CNN: Can cleantech China teach the West how to be green?