BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- At the beginning of this year, just before the annual gathering of Chinese lawmakers and political advisors, an area of more than 1 million square km in east China was blanketed by heavy smog.
In the capital city of Beijing, only five days were free of the hazardous weather phenomenon in January, with repeatedly higher-than-normal readings of PM2.5, fine particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less in diameter.
Moreover, the quality of China's underground water is also reportedly worsening. According to a survey by the Ministry of Land and Resources, over 60 percent of Chinese cities boasted of underground water supplies of Class 1 to Class 3 during 2000 and 2002.
In 2011, however, underground water supplies in 55 percent of Chinese cities were labeled as "poor" or "very poor."
After more than 30 years of rapid development, China has become the second largest economy in the world. But its economic achievements have also been shadowed by heave pollution, a thorny issue worse than ever before.
In the meantime, the world is keeping a keen eye on China's development and environmental issues, which used to affect a number of countries during their process of industrialization and urbanization.
In the 1800s, the British capital of London was called "the City of Fog" due to its heavy smog caused by coal burning. But now, it has become a model of pollution control for other big cities in the world.
Japan also learned a lesson from an outbreak of the so-called "four public nuisance diseases," including Minamata and itai-itai, caused by environmental pollution during its economic take-off in the 1950s.
The two countries have not only brought environmental pollution under control, but also cleared obstacles in a path of sustainable development.
Beijing sees sunny day as two sessions to open
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