Nothing But Blue Skies as Beijing Enters New Year
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CHINA: January 4, 2005
BEIJING - China's capital has special reason to celebrate the New Year -- against all the odds, it managed to reach its goal of 227 days with clear air in 2004, the China Daily said on Friday.
The target had seemed all but unattainable at the end of October, when the city of 14 million needed clear skies for 40 of the last 61 days of the year to hit the mark set by the municipal environmental protection bureau.
But Beijing's typical cover of dust, car exhaust and factory emissions has parted in the past few weeks, bringing blue skies and freezing temperatures.
"The hard-earned reward is owed to intensive inspections on various pollution sources, as well as co-operative weather that blew pollutants out of the city," Zhao Chengyi, an official with the environmental protection bureau, was quoted as saying.
Not everyone, however, is convinced the city is in the clear.
Sceptics argued many air quality monitoring stations were located in remote or forested areas where air was naturally clearer than downtown, the newspaper said.
In early November, Beijing said it was in "a state of emergency" because of air pollution and called on companies and factories to rise to the task of clearing city skies.
Shougang Group, one of China's biggest steel makers and Beijing's biggest polluters, responded by pledging to cut production through the end of the year.
Improving air quality is key to the city's drive to host the 2008 summer Olympics, and the Beijing government plans to relocate 200 polluting factories before the Games begin.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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