Not that I am interested in their Olympics, but they will not be appreciative of my postings (and there have been five visits from China - from Hong Kong to Beijing to Ningbo.
China to shut more factories for Olympics: report
Sat Jul 5, 2008 5:08am EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - Tianjin, a port city just east of Beijing, has ordered 40 factories to shut for the Olympics, the latest dramatic step taken by China to ensure that pollution does not spoil the Games in August.
The factories, including two cement makers, will be closed from July 25 to September 20, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. It gave no estimate of economic losses from the closures in the city, about 115 km (70 miles) from the capital.
The Tianjin order follows news on Friday that Tangshan, an industrial city about 150 km (90 miles) east of Beijing, will shut nearly 300 factories this month to improve air quality for the Games.
Tianjin, which will host some of the Olympic soccer matches, will also halt construction at 26 building sites near its stadiums.
Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world, has spent 140 billion yuan ($20.43 billion) to combat chronic pollution in its preparations for the Olympics, which open on August 8.
But China's capital city was still shrouded in thick smog this week, with buildings just a few hundred feet away barely visible -- the kind of air quality that would embarrass the authorities and potentially disrupt sporting events during the Olympics because of health concerns.
From July 1, vehicles that fail to meet emissions standards have been banned from entering downtown Beijing. And from July 20, Beijing will launch a traffic control system to take half of the city's 3 million cars off the road, using an odd-even license plate system.
The Beijing municipal government issued rules in April ordering industrial firms such as Shougang Group, one of China's major steel producers, to reduce or stop production from July 20.
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From The Sunday Times
July 6, 2008
Smog in Beijing five times over safety limit as Olympics nears
Flora Bagenal
Pollution around the Olympic stadium in Beijing could be five times worse than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.
Chinese officials admit they can no longer guarantee that the air quality will match international standards as pollution tests by The Sunday Times revealed the full extent of the challenge facing British athletes.
With just five weeks to go before the start of the Beijing Games, tests conducted outside the national stadium — known as the Bird’s Nest — and at Tiananmen Square, the starting point of the marathon, showed the air is thick with particulate pollution.
Even the Chinese government’s official air pollution index — which monitors a range of pollutants, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — is running at double the level recommended by the WHO.
Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said: “We made a commitment to ensure air quality for the Olympic Games . . . as for whether we have reached the goal, that will be examined after the event.”
The British team is taking no chances and will train in Macau on the southern coast until the last minute to minimise athletes’ exposure to Beijing’s smog.
Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s leading long-distance runner, who suffers from asthma, has already pulled out of the marathon.
Last week The Sunday Times used an industrial hand-held air monitor to measure the number of particles in the atmosphere, which include car emissions and coal dust from factories. The particles are considered the biggest polluting factor.
The average reading at the stadium was 780,000 particles per litre of air. Even factoring in a 25% margin of error for humidity levels exaggerating the readings, this is more than five times the amount deemed safe by the WHO. The organisation considers 105,000 particles per litre of air a health risk.
Average readings at Tiananmen Square were lower — but still four times worse than the WHO standards when factoring in the humidity.
“Anything over 300,000 would be very worrying if you were using the same equipment in London,” said Professor Frank Kelly, a pollution expert at Kings College London.
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