4. Less smoggy days

Several years ago, news about choking smog shrouding Beijing or Hebei frequently hit the headlines, especially in the winter heating season. After years of efforts to combat air pollution, the area now witnesses much better air quality.

In 2017, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area had 204 days with good air quality. The number of "smoggy days" dropped from 71.1 days in 2013 to 42.3 in 2017, a marked improvement.

From 2013 to 2017, Beijing and Hebei pushed for the replacement of coal-fired heating with electricity and gas to clean the air. More than 2.54 million households in Hebei started using clean energy-powered heating in 2017 alone. As for Beijing, the proportion of clean energy had risen to 90 percent by the end of the 2017.

Beijing also has helped roll out 200,000 new and clean energy vehicles in public transportation, so that the green commuting in central districts reached 72.1 percent in 2017.