[Photo via The Beijing News]

On May 28th, the 2023 Report of the State of the Ecology and Environment in Beijing was released. The Report indicates that in 2023, the city's ecological environment quality continued to improve steadily, with the annual average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air meeting the national secondary air quality standard for three consecutive years.

Since 2013, Beijing has achieved significant overall improvements in air quality. Compared to 2013, the annual average concentration of major air pollutants in 2023 has significantly decreased, with the most public concern focused on PM2.5, which has seen a reduction of 64.2 percent. Compared to 2019, under similar socio-economic activities and diffusion conditions, the annual average concentration of PM2.5 has dropped by 23.8 percent.

As of the end of April this year, the cumulative concentration of PM2.5 in the city has decreased by 11.6 percent year-on-year, reaching 38 micrograms per cubic meter. The number of days with good air quality totaled 104, an increase of 13 days compared to the same period last year.

More than half of Beijing's rivers have good ecological status. Mayflies and other aquatic insects commonly used to indicate clean water bodies are abundant in mountainous rivers and have also been discovered in plain rivers. Beijing's secondary protected aquatic wild animals, such as Zacco platypuses and Chinese hooksnout carps, have been widely distributed.

(Source: Beijing Youth Daily)