Buildings are seen through thick smog in Shenyang city of Northeast China's Liaoning province on Dec 3, 2013. [Photo/icpress.cn]

Liaoning Department of Environmental Protection fined eight of 14 cities in Liaoning province 54.2 million yuan ($8.93 million) for bad air quality in the first 10 months of this year, Peninsula Morning Post reported.

All the money will go toward improving air quality.

The punishment was based on the Interim Measures of Liaoning on Ambient Air Quality Assessment, issued in July 2012. Daily assessments were made of the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Shenyang, Liaoning's capital, was placed at the bottom of the air quality list of 14 cities in Liaoning in the first 10 months. It got fined 34.6 million yuan, or more than 63 percent of all the cities' fines.

Department officials said the department and its subordinate units in the cities are making contingency plans to cope with frequently occurring smog in winter.