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E-mail China Daily, November 8, 2012
As part of the 250-sq-km afforestation project, the district has planted trees on more than 13.8 hectares. Most of them have been planted by highways and railways.
The green guards are expected to help lower the amount of PM2.5, particulate matter with a diameter no bigger than 2.5 micrometers, in the air and reduce the chances Beijing residents have of developing heart and breathing conditions, as well as lung cancer, said Wang Qiuxia, a researcher for Green Beagle, an environmental protection NGO in Beijing.
According to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, 24.5 percent of PM2.5 contaminants in the capital come from neighboring provinces. Preventing them from coming in will greatly improve the city's air.
The newly planted trees are expected to prevent as much as 2,096 metric tons of dust from getting into the air each year, the bureau said.
"The channel for pollution in the past has turned into a natural protective screen, intercepting the dust before it can go further," Wang Shu-qin said. "The difference will be felt as soon as this project is completed."
The greenbelts will also render the community a more pleasant place to live, she said.
Beijing has set up 35 air-monitoring stations and has started releasing reports in real time on PM2.5 density, as well as the air's concentration of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM10.
One of the stations, in Changping, another northwestern district of the capital, is charged with studying how cities and suburbs near Beijing add to the pollution in the capital.
"We used to have some 50 coal yards in the district, and that made the city's air quality worse, especially in the winter," said Wang Xia, deputy director of the district's afforestation office. "About 30 of the coal yards have been moved out and the remaining 20 are to be cleared away in the near future and replaced using afforestation. So it's believed that the air quality will improve noticeably."
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