Radar used to bust unauthorized basement construction in Beijing

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Radar was used to detect unauthorized basement construction in Beijing as the city gets tough on the potentially dangerous practice.

The crackdown comes after a lawmaker built a basement in his courtyard that caused neighboring houses to collapse, local authorities said Friday.

Radar detection has been employed to monitor whether there are any hollowed areas under roads or houses.

According to the office in Xicheng District responsible for the crackdown, law enforcement can use radar to check renovated houses.

If any unauthorized basements are found, the owners will be ordered to fill in the basements or holes immediately, said Song Jiale, an official with the district government.

He said property ownership certificates will be granted after houses pass the check.

Previously, Li Baojun, a lawmaker from east China's Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, had built a 18-meter-deep basement in his courtyard in Xicheng District without permission, which caved in and caused the road and surrounding buildings to collapse on Jan. 24.

The incident has revealed the city's rampant illegal underground construction and caused a stir in the country.
  xinhuanet.com
7/2/15
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Beijing city raises subsidies for scrapping polluting vehicles

Beijing car owners with emissions-heavy models can now earn more money from scrapping their vehicles after the city raised its subsidy for doing so by an average of 2,000 yuan (321.8 US dollars), environmental protection authorities said Tuesday.

According to the new plan, owners who used their vehicles for more than six years and disposed of the vehicles at least one year earlier can receive an average of 8,000 yuan subsidies. The highest subsidies for cars will reach 8,500 yuan, and 21,500 yuan for heavy duty diesel vehicles.

The plan is to be effective throughout 2015 and 2016.

Owners who trade in their old vehicles for new ones will receive another subsidy for purchasing new cars.

Old-vehicles used for more than 10 years with high pollutant emissions are still running on the road, said Li Kunsheng, with the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

"They are the target of our pollution monitoring work," he said.

The new plan is to be announced in detail soon, according to Li, and all vehicle-owners who scrapped their vehicles after Jan. 1 are qualified to apply for the new plan.

Beijing's average PM2.5 density in 2014 dropped by four percent compared with 2013, but some pollutants rebounded, said the municipal environmental protection bureau earlier this week.

The average density of PM2.5, airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, was 85.9 micrograms per cubic meter in 2014, compared with 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013, the bureau said in a statement Sunday.

The reading was still 1.5 times higher than the national standard of 35, which was set by the State Council in 2012.

As part of efforts to curb pollution, Beijing reduced coal use by 2.6 million tonnes to keep it below 19 million tonnes. The capital also removed 476,000 outdated vehicles from roads and shut down about 375 factories in 2014.

In 2015, Beijing aims to cut PM2.5 index by around five percent and reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by six percent.
 Source: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
6/1/15
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Related:

• China will destroy 5,000,000 cars this year to battle air pollution (Polluting vehicles to be scrapped)

Beijing's thirsty neighbor receives water from the south

Beijing's neighboring province of Hebei began receiving water through the south-north water diversion project Thursday, local authorities said.

The middle route's first-stage project supplies more than three billion cubic meters of water annually to the province, said Yuan Fu, chief of Hebei's office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

It will alleviate water shortage in Hebei and help promote sustainable development in local society and economy, provincial governor Zhang Qingwei said.

The middle route's first-stage project starts at Danjiangkou reservoir in the central province of Hubei. It was officially put into operation on Dec. 12..

It will supply 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per year to the northern regions, including the cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and provinces of Henan and Hebei.
 Sources: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
18/12/14
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Related:

• South-north canal starts flowing to ease water woes. (video: South to North Water Diversion Project) 

• Beijing closes 6,900 wells to protect underground water (video: South-to-North Water Diversion Project) 

• Κίνα: Σχέδιο «Αντιστροφής» των Ποταμών για Ύδρευση των Ξηρών Περιοχών του Βορρά 

 

South-north canal starts flowing to ease water woes. (video: South to North Water Diversion Project)

The 1,432-kilometer long artificial waterway diverting water from China's south to solve the water shortage crisis in the north, particularly Beijing, started operation on Friday.

About 9.5 billion cubic meters of water will pass through the newly-built canal each year from Danjiangkou reservoir in Central China's Hubei Province to cities like Beijing and Tianjin, as well as more than 100 cities in Henan and Hebei provinces, according to a report by China Central Television.

The water will arrive in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan in three days, and reach Beijing in 15 days. More than 60 million people along the water channel will be able to drink the high-quality water from Danjiangkou, which is part of the Hanjiang river that flows into China's largest river, the Yangtze.

The project is expected to largely alleviate the pressure of water shortages in the northern regions, where annual precipitation is much lower than the southern areas and years of excessive use have caused underground water to dwindle to a dangerous level.

According to the plan, more than 1.2 billion cubic meters of water will go to Beijing each year. 

The water, after being mixed with local above-ground and underground water at treatment plants, will cover more than 50 percent of Beijing people's daily needs and part of industrial usage.

But experts warned that the situation is still far from optimistic considering the population and the huge gap between the supply of water and North China's needs. 

In Beijing, some 2.1 billion cubic meters of natural water is formed each year, but last year more than 3.6 billion were used. Beijing pumps about 500 million cubic meters of underground water more than is sustainable each year, China National Radio (CNR) Friday quoted the Beijing Water Authority as saying.

It will be impossible for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei to fix the water crisis "unless they make the best use of every drop of water," Li Yuanyuan, vice director of the Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design General Institute, told the CNR.

Sun Guosheng, chief of Beijing's Office of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, hinted there might be a slight price rise soon to encourage people to save water, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Source: Global Times
12/12/14
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Related:

• Beijing closes 6,900 wells to protect underground water (video: South-to-North Water Diversion Project) 

• Κίνα: Σχέδιο «Αντιστροφής» των Ποταμών για Ύδρευση των Ξηρών Περιοχών του Βορρά 

• VIDEO: China, Sending Water North

The Chinese government has embarked on a massive engineering project to transfer water from the wet south to the dry north.

 

Beijing closes 6,900 wells to protect underground water (video:South-to-North Water Diversion Project)

Beijing will gradually shut down 6,900 urban wells in the next five years to protect groundwater and improve drinking water quality.

The wells provide 240 million cubic meters of water annually, one fourth of the Beijing's urban supply, said Zhang Ping, deputy head of the Beijing water authority.

Aging of facilities and poor management mean that the quality of water from wells cannot be guaranteed in some areas, resulting in a steady stream of complaints from citizens, said Zhang.

The middle route of the gigantic south-to-north water diversion project will soon come on-stream, bringing 1 billion cubic meters to Beijing each year from a reservoir on the Hanjiang River, making possible closure of the wells.

Since 1999, Beijing has used too much groundwater: about 6.5 billion cubic meters too much. Long-term overexploitation has led to environmental problems like subsidence. The water table in parts of Beijing has dropped 12.8 meters since 1998 and more than 1,300 sq km of land has subsided over 50 centimeters.
Sources: Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
22/11/14
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Related:

• Κίνα: Σχέδιο «Αντιστροφής» των Ποταμών για Ύδρευση των Ξηρών Περιοχών του Βορρά 

• VIDEO: China, Sending Water North

The Chinese government has embarked on a massive engineering project to transfer water from the wet south to the dry north.

 

Severe air pollution hits North China, government issues orange alert

The latest wave of severe air pollution continued to smother China's northern regions including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Henan provinces on Thursday, and is likely to last until Saturday. 

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) upgraded northern China's smog alert from yellow to orange on Thursday afternoon. Most northern regions were severely affected. The NMC forecast that Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province will all suffer from dense smog that could bring visibility down to less than 200 meters in some places on Friday, NMC said on its website.


The smog, which first hit Henan Province on Tuesday, was said to be the worst in northern China since July.

According to Beijing's contingency plans, outdoor sport events and school activities should be cancelled while an orange alert is in effect and it is suggested that residents wear masks while outside and wash faces afterwards.

Some cities in Hebei Province, such as Langfang and Handan, began to limit the number of vehicles on the road by prohibiting cars with certain license plate numbers from being driven, in an attempt to curb air pollution.

• Two thirds of Henan's cities have been shrouded by air pollution for several days this month, and the Department of Environmental Protection of Henan Province attributed the smog to farmers burning straw in their fields, which helps crops grow, the Guangming Daily reported.

However, environmentalists do not buy the explanation offered by Henan's government.

"The occurrence of the smog is by no means an accident," Du Shaozhong, former deputy director of Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, told the Global Times.

China's current industrial production methods that rely heavily on traditional, polluting energy sources and vehicle exhaust fumes should be blamed for causing the smog, Du said.

Du called on the public and government to work together to change the production methods, to supervise emissions and to curb smoke produced by restaurants.

"Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei will never see blue skies if we do not deal with pollution caused by vehicles, burning coal and various industries," Du said.
[By Zhang Hui Source:Global Times]
9-10/10/14
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• China will destroy 5,000,000 cars this year to battle air pollution (Polluting vehicles to be scrapped)

• Air pollution champion: China burns more coal than rest of world combined

• Measures taken to tackle heavy air pollution in N. China

• Beijing issues rare air pollution alert

China will destroy 5,000,000 cars this year to battle air pollution (Polluting vehicles to be scrapped)

China is going to make air cleaner by taking 5.33 million ageing cars off its roads, according to a government document. The move is part of a broader campaign for battling deep environmental crisis that’s gripped world’s second-biggest economy.
The vehicles in question are so-called ‘yellow label’ cars that do not meet Chinese fuel standards and are thus meant to be ‘eliminated’ this year, the Chinese State Council document published on Monday and cited by Reuters, says.
Chinese authorities, spurred by overwhelming public outcry, have lately boosted efforts for tackling the growing ecological crisis, a byproduct of decades of massive economic growth amid neglect for environmental protection.

The plan for cutting the number of old vehicles is part of a broader action plan to cut emissions over the next two years. Chinese authorities say the country had not been able to catch up with its pollution reduction plan for 2011-2013 period and now had to come up with some tougher measures. 

In Beijing, 330,000 cars will be disposed of, while 660,000 will be taken off the streets of the neighboring Hebei province, home to seven of China's smoggiest cities in 2013.
The document does not specify how exactly the process of getting rid of old cars is going to be implemented. Car owners who agree to have their old cars scrapped could be getting subsidies, as was earlier done by Beijing municipal government, which offered sums between 2,500-14,500 yuan (US$400-2,300) to those ready to say goodbye to their ageing vehicles.
The level of the hazardous airborne particles known PM 2.5 in Beijing air is over four times the daily level recommended by the World Health Organization. A third of all PM 2.5 in the air of the Chinese capital comes from vehicle emissions, according to Beijing’s environmental watchdog.
"Many vehicles have problems and many didn't even meet the standards when they came out of the factory, and fining them on the streets isn't the way to solve this problem," Li Kunsheng, director of the Vehicle Emissions Center of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, told Reuters......http://rt.com/news/161528-china-destroy-millions-cars/
26/5/14
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• Measures taken to tackle heavy air pollution in N. China

• Beijing issues rare air pollution alert

• Air pollution champion: China burns more coal than rest of world combined

• Heavy smog shrouds Beijing for 3rd day

• Air pollution in Beijing reaches 'health hazard' levels (VIDEO, PHOTOS RT)

----------------------------------

• Polluting vehicles to be scrapped...

The Chinese government announced on Monday that the country will pull 6 million highly polluting vehicles off the roads and scrap them before the end of 2014.

The rule applies to vehicles that do not meet exhaust emissions standards. Of the vehicles to be scrapped this year, 20 percent are in the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, as well as Hebei Province, all northern regions frequently troubled by smog in recent years.

More vehicles will be scrapped next year, including up to 5 million in the nation's economically developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions, according to an action plan published by the State Council.

"Strengthening control on vehicle emissions will be a major item on the agenda for the country's energy savings, emissions reductions, and low-carbon development during the next two years," said the action plan.

A report from environmental authorities showed that 31.1 percent of air pollution in Beijing comes from vehicle exhaust.

In addition to eliminating polluting vehicles, experts are calling for the development of less polluting fuel.

According to the action plan, accelerating the elimination of highly polluting vehicles will help China hit several of its green targets for the next two years, including annual reductions of 3.9 percent in energy consumption per unit of economic output, 2 percent in emissions of sulfur dioxide and 5 percent in emissions of nitrogen oxides.

To achieve these goals, the government will also push forward other work such as slashing outdated production capacities, reducing coal consumption, and introducing green technologies that are conducive to emissions control and energy savings.
[globaltimes.cn]
26/5/14

Measures taken to tackle heavy air pollution in N. China

Efforts are being made in northern China to tackle the dense smog affecting the region, after weather authorities issued a yellow air pollution alert on Saturday.

Beijing, Tianjin Municipalities and parts of Hebei province have been choking under a blanket of heavy air pollution since Thursday. To curb emissions, Hebei has slowed down certain projects under construction, while all surface mines and open quarries have been closed. The province also plans to tear down a number of steel and iron production facilities.

In the capital Beijing, the construction of new metro line has been halted. According to weather authorities, this round of heavy pollution will last until next Thursday.
 http://english.cntv.cn
22/2/14
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Related:

• Beijing issues rare air pollution alert

• Air pollution champion: China burns more coal than rest of world combined

• Heavy smog shrouds Beijing for 3rd day

• Air pollution in Beijing reaches 'health hazard' levels (VIDEO, PHOTOS RT)

Beijing issues rare air pollution alert

When the air gets really bad, Beijing says it has an emergency plan to yank half the city's cars off the road. The only problem is: It may be difficult to ever set that plan in motion.
     
A rare alert issued Friday was an "orange" one, the second-highest in the four levels of urgency. It prompted health advisories, bans on barbeques, fireworks and demolition work, but no order to pull cars from the streets.
     
Beijing's alert system requires a forecast of three days in a row of severe pollution for the highest level.
     
Ma Jun of the non-governmental Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing said the government is reluctant to adopt the most disruptive measures, because it would be nearly impossible to notify all drivers of the rules. 
 http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/beijing-issues-rare-air-pollution-alert.aspx?pageID=238&nID=62761&NewsCatID=356
21/2/14
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Related:

• Air pollution champion: China burns more coal than rest of world combined

• Heavy smog shrouds Beijing for 3rd day

• Air pollution in Beijing reaches 'health hazard' levels (VIDEO, PHOTOS RT)

Air pollution champion: China burns more coal than rest of world combined

China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has reported. China’s coal use is poised to continue rising, despite the country's rapidly deteriorating environment, experts predicted.
­The latest EIA report revealed that China's coal consumption grew more than 9 percent in 2011, continuing its upward trend for a 12th consecutive year. Since 2000, the country has accounted for more than 80 percent of the global increase in coal use, the EIA reported. China currently accounts for 47 percent of global coal consumption, nearly totaling the rest of the world combined.

Image from eia.gov

­
Coal remains the most widely used energy source in China due to its low cost – the country is the largest user of coal electricity in the world. Along with its own vast coal resources – about 114 billion tons produced as of 2011 according to the World Coal Association – China also imports large quantities of coal, since the country's coal-mining regions are often far from the areas where it is in demand. "The Asian market is the fastest-growing coal market in the world," Brookings Institution energy analyst Charles Ebinger told Mother Jones magazine. 
China's heavy use of coal is believed to be one of the reasons the capital Beijing recently witnessed its worst air pollution in years. For two weeks, Beijing's air was labeled worse than “very unhealthy” and “hazardous.” Authorities have closed 103 factories and taken 30 percent of government vehicles off the roads, but with little effect.
Air pollution in China hit a record high earlier this month: 30 to 45 times above recommended safety levels. Beijing itself became blanketed in a thick, toxic cloud that grounded flights and forced people indoors.

Vehicles drive through the Guomao Bridge on a heavy haze day in Beijing's central business district January 29, 2013.(Reuters / Jason Lee)

The report is the highest-level acknowledgment to date of the hazardous air quality levels across much of China.
"We should take effective measures to speed up the enhancement of our industrial structure, push for energy conservation and build an ecological civilization," Chinese premier Wen Jiabao announced on state television.
However, the measures undertaken by the Chinese government do not include replacing coal production and consumption with more environmentally friendly sources of energy. Rather, the IEA predicted the opposite: Coal consumption will grow not only in China, but also in India and other developing economies, and this trend will prevail until clean energy prices can compete with coal.
Notably, wind power recently surpassed nuclear power production in China, and is now the country’s third-biggest source of electricity, second to hydropower, according to a recent report by the China Wind Energy Association.

.rt.com
30/01/13
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Related:

• Heavy smog shrouds Beijing for 3rd day

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Buildings and cars are pictured on a heavy hazy day during winter in Beijing's central business district, January 30, 2013.(Reuters / Jason Lee)

Visitors take pictures on Tiananmen Square during a foggy day in central Beijing, January 29, 2013.(Reuters / China Daily)

A combination photograph shows people wearing masks on a heavy haze day during winter in Beijing January 29, 2013.(Reuters / Jason Lee)

Heavy smog shrouds Beijing for 3rd day

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Air pollution in Beijing has reached dangerous levels for a third day. On Sunday, the municipal government issued a warning on its website for PM 2.5 readings. 

Real-time monitoring data shows the air quality index was as high as 500 in most parts of the city, with some above 900. An AQI reading below 50 indicates excellent air quality; above 100 is light pollution.


 The smog is expected to last another three days, as weather conditions are preventing the pollutants from dispersing. The public are advised to stay indoors and to avoid strenuous exercise.
 .cntv.cn
13/1/13
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Related post:

• Air pollution in Beijing reaches 'health hazard' levels (VIDEO, PHOTOS RT)

Air pollution in Beijing reaches 'health hazard' levels (VIDEO, PHOTOS RT)

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Air pollution in the Chinese capital has hit dangerous marks, reaching beyond the permissible level of pollution on the local environmental center’s scale. Beijing residents are recommended to stay indoors by local authorities.
The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center has reported the rising of air-quality indices since Friday in many parts of the city.

A warning scrolled across the monitoring center's website says that the density of PM 2.5 had reached 700 micrograms per cubic meter in many parts of Beijing and that the polluted air was expected to linger for the next three days.
The index indicates the level of airborne PM 2.5 particulates, at which particle matters are considered the most harmful to health. Air is considered good when the index is at 50 or below, but hazardous with a reading between 301 and 500, when people are warned to avoid outdoor physical activities.
The city’s authorities have blamed a lack of wind and foggy conditions for the high concentration of air pollutants.
“It is expected that air pollution in Beijing will remain heavy during the daytime today… people are advised to stay indoors as much as possible,” China’s state TV quoted Beijing’s environmental protection center as saying on Friday.
According to rules issued by the city’s government in December, all outdoor sports activities are to stop and factories have to reduce production if Beijing's official air-quality reading goes over 500.
Meanwhile, according to a Twitter account run by the US embassy in Beijing,air quality ratings for the city have ranged between “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” since Thursday, and reached the “beyond index” mark during Saturday afternoon. Monitors there recorded off-the-chart air-quality readings as high as 845 at 8pm on Saturday.
Readings are often different in different parts of Beijing. Chinese authorities and the United States also have different ways to calculate the air quality index, although their indices are "highly similar" at the two ends of the spectrum, according to the founder of the nongovernmental Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing, Ma Jun.
For comparison, on Friday the 9pm readings for PM2.5 and ozone in Hong Kong’s Central and Western districts, among the most polluted on the island, were around 60 and 20 respectively, according to the website of Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department.
Air pollution is believed to be one of the major problems in China with its fast pace of industrialization, reliance on coal power and quick growth in car ownership. Due to polluted air Beijing is often covered with dense smog, while its many residents suffer from respiratory problems.
Several other cities, including Tianjin on the coast east of Beijing and southern China's Wuhan city also reported severe pollution over the last several days.
.rt.com
12/1/13

A man walks along trees on a heavy haze winter day in central Beijing, January 12, 2013 (Reuters / Jason Lee)

A woman wearing a mask walks on a street during severe pollution in Beijing on January 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Ed Jones)

A woman wearing a mask crosses a street during severe pollution in Beijing on January 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Ed Jones)

Severe pollution clouds the Beijing skyline on January 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Ed Jones)

An infant wearing a mask (C) is carried along a street in severe pollution in Beijing on January 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Ed Jones)

A cyclist wearing a mask prepares to cross a road during severe pollution in Beijing on January 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Ed Jones)

People walk during a heavily hazy winter day in central Beijing, January 12, 2013 (Reuters / Jason Lee)

Pedestrians wearing masks wait to cross a road during severe pollution in Beijing on January 12, 2013 (AFP Photo / Ed Jones)

People walk on a pedestrian bridge on a very hazy winter day in Beijing January 12, 2013 (Reuters / Jason Lee)

Vehicles drive on the Third Ring Road on a very hazy winter day in Beijing January 12, 2013 (Reuters / Jason Lee)