Hey, remember the Beijing Olympics? Remember, also, all the talk about the pollution during said Olympics? Well, the Chinese government, it seems, realized that the city’s pollution was getting waaaay out of hand, and has been working extremely hard to lower pollution levels throughout the city. And, as the New York Times reports, the efforts seem to be working.

Through September, the government counted 221 days in which the 0-to-500 pollution index — the lower the number, the better — was below 101. It was the greatest number of “blue-sky days,” as the city calls them, since daily measurements were first published in 1998. At the same time, the city has recorded only 2 days with dangerously high air pollution. That is the lowest number in a decade, and fully 17 days fewer than were logged in the same period in 2000.

These numbers aren’t quite as comprehensive as, say, American pollution standards, and some warn that they could even be wildly inaccurate. As well, it is very important to remember that the air is, really, far from clean. In fact, “Beijing has yet to meet the W.H.O.’s [World Health Organization] interim air standards for developing countries — or even the less stringent standards posted by China’s national government.” But the empirical evidence of blue skies is convincing the Chinese people that the air is getting cleaner.

The government has implemented just a smorgasbord of policies to combat pollution, including:

–”[S]ince 1999, the city has ratcheted up its new-car emissions standards from nonexistent to the level of Euro IV, the same clean-tailpipe requirements that are now enforced across the European Union nations. The rest of China will move to Euro IV next year.”

–The city has the world’s largest fleet of natural gas-powered buses (4,100 buses), and is overhauling the entire subway system.

–Mandatory restrictions mean that 1 in 5 cars is off the roads every day.

–The Chinese government implemented its own version of the Cash for Clunkers program.

Not only all of that on the roadways, but there has been a big push to run boilers and heaters on natural gas instead of coal. As well,

Nearly 2,900 gas stations and petroleum storage tanks have been equipped with recycling controls. Hundreds of heavily polluting factories have been moved from central Beijing, including a coking coal plant and a steel mill that is scheduled to depart by the end of 2010.

So that’s more of an example of moving pollution than reducing it, but the city itself is feeling the good effects of cleaner air. Think about this: “Beijing’s sulfur emissions have been cut almost in half compared with 2000, and industrial dust has decreased by two-thirds.” Not so bad in ten years.

photo credit: Yoshimai’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons