Rare rainbow appears over Beijing

The rainbow that stopped a city

After hours of rain in the Chinese capital city of Beijing, something appeared that residents didn't expect to see - a rainbow.

The beautiful sight occurred on Monday evening.

Rainbows aren't seen in Beijing very often because of the high levels of smog and other air pollution.

In fact they are so rare, thousands of the people who spotted it uploaded lots of pictures of the rainbow via social media.

"Goodnight rainbow. Hope to see you again," said one happy viewer on Monday evening.

"To us living in China, it was so rare and beautiful to see," said Ting Lee. "It's definitely not something we see very often."

People enjoyed taking pictures of the rare sight

The rainbow could be seen above Beijing's central district, as shown in this image uploaded by a social media user