From the Readers

Clean Beijing's air

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-28 08:00

The Beijing Academy of Social Sciences is conducting a survey to know how far the city has to progress before attaining global status.

Having a certain number of five-star restaurants and overseas students are among the criteria it has to fulfill to achieve that status.

The level of detail of this survey overlooks an obvious measure of a city's status: whether its air is breathable.

Beijing may be able to meet all the requirements in the survey, but its air quality will obscure these advantages to visitors from across the world.

A healthy environment is a precondition to becoming a global city. Beijing still has a lot to do in this aspect.

The solution to air quality problems will involve aggressively cutting the use of cars, which is a cornerstone policy adopted by many global cities.

Beijing should consider increasing the number of prohibited driving days from 1 to 2 per week. Or like London, start imposing a daily congestion fee on cars entering the Second Ring Road.

Kai Xue, via e-mail

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(China Daily 07/28/2010 page9)