Beijing will close 500 general manufacturing and polluting enterprises, after shutting down 651 in 2017. The city removed 1,992 such companies from 2013 to 2017 as part of the capital's five-year clean air action plan, surpassing the target of 1,200.
Last year, the 651 enterprises ordered to shut down were mainly from traditional industries that caused pollution, including building materials, chemicals, furniture and wood products, metal products, cast forging, packing and printing industries.
In addition, the city closed six of its eight cement factories in five years, lowering its cement production capacity to 3.1 million tons. The two factories left in operations are a part of the city's basic infrastructure.
Since May 2016, Beijing has closed or transformed 10,671 companies that illegally operated or caused pollution, 4,518 of which were located in Daxing District, the most in the city.
According to a local official, a total of 1,173 companies, mainly from logistics, steel and furniture industries, will be moved out from a 29-square-kilometer site in the new downtown area of Daxing District. Since last August, 9.75 million square meters of non-residential buildings have been demolished, and 1,007 companies have been closed. The work will be finished by May this year.
Daxing District has been striving to improve its air quality in recent years. From 2013 to 2017, the district has reduced the use of coal by 1.93 million tons, and the 395 villages in the district have stopped using coal. The district has built 35 parks, and the park area has increased more than 100 times compared to 2006. The concentration of PM2.5 particles has decreased from 108 to 61 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013-17, down 43.5 percent. Its heavily polluted days were reduced to 29 days last year.
（Source：China.org.cn）
