Beijing Tells Residents to Clean Up Their Act

Beijing government said the most despised habits were: spitting in the street, littering, open-air barbecues and smoking in public.

Beijing environmental authorities have called on residents to quit bad habits in a bid to create a cleaner city for next year's Olympic Games. Beijing residents were invited in September to list the worst habits in everyday life that could cause pollution and give suggestions on how to improve the situation. Now the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, the organizer, has revealed it received nearly 200,000 responses.

The bureau said the most despised habits were:

1. Spitting in the street,
2. Littering,
3. Open-air barbecues,
4. Smoking in public.

The bureau said the most popular suggestions for improving the environment included:

1. No smoking in public places,
2. Telling drivers to turn off their engines when at red lights,
3. No littering,
4. No spitting,
5. Using environment-friendly appliances.

Many residents also called for vendors not to barbecue on downtown streets and suggested building fit out houses with environmentally-friendly materials.

The bureau advised residents to act on the suggestions and to halt bad habits before the Olympics in August.

"Air quality reflects the civilization of a city," said Zhang Baosen, an official of the Environmental Protection Bureau. "Improving Beijing's air quality for the Olympics requires the combined efforts of the government and the 17 million residents."

The suggestions made by residents may serve as a guide to environmental protection, he said.

A series of measures have been taken to improve the air quality in the national capital since the beginning of this year.

From August 17 to 20, about 1.3 million cars were banned from the city roads each day to test the effect on air quality for the Olympic Games.

The densities of major pollutants in the air - nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and inhalant particulate matter - were reduced by an average of 20 percent, compared with that on August 16, according to a report by the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.

Beijing Shougang Group, China's leading steel manufacturer, has pledged to reduce output by more than 70 percent from July to September 2008, to ensure the Olympics can enjoy better air quality.

The city has also encouraged the use of public transport by cutting Metro and bus ticket prices.

Source: Shanghaidaily