China's Smog Shutdown
Beijing Closes Factories
In Bid to Clear the Air
For the Olympics
By MEI FONG
February 28, 2008; Page A11
BEIJING -- China's government, struggling to contain what could be an embarrassing air-pollution problem during the Beijing Olympics, is ordering the closure of certain factories across a huge swath of northern China ahead of this summer's Games.
Six provinces and municipalities -- Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Shanxi, Tianjin and Beijing -- have already started shutting down polluting factories and curbing power-plant production in an ambitious attempt to cut down on air pollution. Collectively, these provinces represent an area larger than France, Germany and Italy combined, but pollutants from factories far from Beijing are believed to be partially responsible for the capital's often smoggy air.
天更蓝，水更清！