Current Status. In general, urban air pollution in Chinese
cities is serious. According to the Report on the State of
Environment in China,3 in 2002, of the 343 monitored
cities, only about one third met the Grade II National
Ambient Air Quality Standard (Table 1) for general residential
areas, and 107 cities (31.2%) were heavily polluted
exceeding the Grade III standard (Figure 2). Nearly threefourths
of China’s urban population was living under
harmful air quality conditions (Figure 3). Air pollution is
one of the important factors that influence people’s
health and welfare in the cities.