Beijingers breathe excellent air as military parade nears

Beijingers have breathed excellent air for the past five days as the capital halves the number of vehicles on roads and cuts industrial production for the ongoing IAAF World Championships and upcoming military parade.

The average density of PM2.5, airborne particles measuring less than 2.5 microns, was only 19.5 micrograms per cubic meter in the capital from Aug. 20 to 24, a record low for five consecutive days since monitoring began, said Zhang Dawei, head of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center.

Beijing began to adopt temporary measures to ensure air quality on Aug. 20. The density of nitric oxide, a vehicle exhaust, more than halved in the morning rush hours, thanks to barring certain cars from the roads based on their number plates.

Nearly 2,000 industrial firms, including petrochemical and cement plants, will suspend or cut production in Beijing. Work is also suspended for 453 construction sites to control floating dust.

A military parade will be held in Beijing on Sept. 3 to mark the end of World War II.

Similar measures will also be adopted in neighboring Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Inner Mongolia and Henan, affecting more than 10,000 enterprises and nearly 9,000 construction sites.

Such measures contributed to blue skies during the 2008 Summer Olympics and the APEC meetings last year.