It was possibly the first overseas trip for Wang Moheng, who is just shy of his second birthday. He was on a family vacation to Malaysia with his parents and grandparents to escape Beijing’s smoggy skies.

“They said to other parents at our day-care centre: ‘We’re getting away from the bad air in Beijing for a while’,” Ms Xie Yongzhen, whose son has been a playmate of Moheng, told The New York Times.

Mr Wang Rui, Moheng’s father, worked in the Beijing office of Boston Consulting Group, an American company. The boy’s mother, Ms Jiao Weiwei, worked at a Chinese software company. Her parents were also on the plane.

Other families from the day-care centre had joined the Wangs on the trip, but returned on different flights, said Ms Xie.

Their parting words to Moheng’s family in Kuala Lumpur: “See you in smoggy Beijing.”

— PHOTO: FACEBOOK