Ministry to Begin Inspecting Most Heavily Polluted Regions

Officials from the ministry will also lead a special inspection team to the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province cluster to deal with the smog that may be exacerbated when coal-fueled furnaces fire up residential heaters in November. The team will then report its findings.

"Governments in the cluster should get prepared for potential smog this winter and take all measures possible, including controlling coal consumption, banning heavily polluting enterprises and easing traffic to prevent the pollution from getting too severe," said Chai Fahe, deputy head of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

Chai said many of the industries that are polluting the air should be halted in the region.

On Wednesday, officials from six provinces and municipalities and seven ministries gathered in Beijing to discuss how to prevent and control airborne pollution in the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province region this winter.

It was the third meeting in two months to discuss regional air pollution, with top local officials presenting efforts each province, municipality and autonomous region will make to cut down on the smog.

The smog in Northeast China from Saturday until Thursday was moderate, with Liaoning province reporting readings of PM2.5 — airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter — below 80 in all of its cities.

Northeast of Liaoning Province, residents in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces are still suffering from light to medium pollution, but PM2.5 readings in most areas in these two provinces have dropped to below 200.

The environmental protection bureau in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, recently posted an announcement on its website, pledging to continue improving pollution control measures and to conduct research of the smog to prepare for future pollution. Thick smog enveloped the city on Monday, reducing visibility to below 10 meters in some areas.

Cities in Northeast China began lifting their warnings for smog and haze on Thursday as the pollution gradually moves southwest to parts of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, according to the National Meteorological Center of China Meteorological Administration as of 6 PM on Thursday.