Blue sky and white clouds as seen from the Lianhua Hill Park in Futian District yesterday. Sun Yuchen
Shenzhen's air quality has consistently met European Union standards this year, a source from the Shenzhen Municipal Ecology Environment Bureau said Tuesday.
The city’s air quality index ranked No. 4 of the 168 monitored cities in the country from January to May. Haikou, Lhasa and Zhuhai took the top three places.
Shenzhen’s average PM2.5 concentration, a key indicator of air pollution, stood at 21 micrograms per cubic meter for the first five months, down 2 micrograms year on year, meeting the EU standards, an annual PM2.5 concentration of 25 micrograms per cubic meter.
The rate of good air quality in Shenzhen reached 98.7 percent for the first five months, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.
Improvement in air quality suggested achievements in air pollution control.
Many citizens applauded the blue sky in Shenzhen, which has been given a name, Shenzhen Blue, recently on WeChat, the report said.
Shenzhen has rolled out a series of measures such as Shenzhen Blue Sky Sustainable Development Action Plan, Blue Sky Project and Blue Sky Action Plan since 2004.
It is the first city in the country to control pollution from shipping, analyze origins of the PM2.5 and replace all the old public buses and taxis with electric ones.
Shenzhen is also the only city in the country that has prohibited the burning of high polluting fossil fuels and the bulk use of coal as well as general industrial coal.
Staff with the bureau said that Shenzhen will continue their work on air pollution control to maintain Shenzhen Blue.