BEIJING -- In a way, the Olympics have helped Beijing resident Guo Suying, 72, get rid of the irritating gasoline smell from a nearby filling station.
"This summer, we can open the window any time without fearing that the house would be filled with the smell," said Guo, who lives in Haidian District.
The change reflects a large-scale project involving the reclamation of emissions at gas stations across the capital, part of the Olympic host's efforts to improve air quality.
The city's 1,265 gas stations, 38 oil storehouses and 1,026 oil tank trucks completed an emission reclamation project during the past 13 months, said Li Kunsheng, a Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau official.
That's only a tiny part of the capital's progress in keeping the commitments it made seven years ago, when it won the bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Beijing Shougang Group, one of China's leading steel makers and the city's major polluter, has extinguished the fire in three of its four blast furnaces at its Beijing plants.
The plants have slashed monthly production to 200,000 tonnes in the third quarter, said group president Zhu Jimin. "This is about 29 percent of our normal output."
Air quality is a major concern for participants in the August 8-24 Games. The municipal authorities have also made it a priority to reduce pollution over the past decade, investing about 120 billion yuan (17 billion US dollars) in the effort.
