Only eight of China's 47 major cities were up to the state environmental requirements for both air and ground water in 1999, official statistics has shown.

The quality of water and air in Suzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Zhanjiang and Haikou were up to the State requirements, while 39 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, all of China's provincial capitals except Haikou, failed to meet the requirements.

According to the State Environmental Protection Administration, out of the 46 State-designated major cities, 28 met the environmental protection requirements in ground water quality but failed in the quality of air.

In terms of air quality alone, only Guilin and the aforementioned eight cities were up to standard.

Fifteen cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou,Chongqing and Taiyuan, failed to meet discharge requirements for all of the following major air pollutants: total suspended particles (TSP), sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

The other nine cities were Shijiazhuang, Yantai, Nanchang, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Urumqi.

Lanzhou was listed as the most TSP-polluted city in China, ranking first in terms of excessive TSP discharge among 29 cities that failed to meet the State TSP discharge requirement.

The TSP level in Lanzhou was 2.47 times more than the State requirement.

Beijing was top on the list of 22 cities with excessive nitrogen oxide emission, releasing 1.92 times of nitrogen oxide more than the permitted level last year.

Taiyuan, one of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world, led 19 domestic cities in terms of excessive sulphur dioxide emission, exceeding the permitted level by 4.37 times.