Sanmenxia tops air quality rankings

By Pan Qi( chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2014-09-16

The Environmental Protection Ministry website has announced that the city Sanmenxia topped the list of excellent air quality cities in China, on Sept 11 and Sept 15, as a result of its local government's efforts to change the economy strategies by closing many factories with coal-fired plants, boilers and smelters, and developing greener industries such as service outsourcing and ecotourism.

In commenting on the announcement, one villager said, “I rarely went out for a walk 10 years ago, but I’ve been going out frequently over the past two years because the sky tends to be blue and the water and air much cleaner.”

The environmental protection bureau’s monitoring sites and the government of Sanmenxia, now publicize real-time air quality reports 24 hours a day. The measurements are based on the levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), suspended particles less than 10 μm in diameter (PM10), suspended particles less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) at monitoring stations across the city.