The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province has moved up China’s air quality ranking, the Environmental Protection Ministry announced recently, keeping it ahead of the two other northeastern provincial capitals -- Changchun in Jilin province and Shenyang in Liaoning province.
It moves to 34th place from 55th, in March, out of 74 cities,and much higher than 61st place back in January.

River under a clear blue sky, in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. on April 25. [Photo/my399.com]

Environmental experts attribute the rise to warmer weather and the city’s air pollution campaign that started in January. In March, the local environmental protection bureau recorded 22 days when Harbin’s air quality met national standards, with 5 days with excellent air quality and 17 with good air quality, and the city showed no heavily polluted days last month.

Other cities in the Top 10 slot in air quality were Haikou, Hainan province; Zhoushan, Guangdong province; Lhasa, Tibet; Huizhou, Guangdong province; Xiamen, Fujianprovince; Kunming, Yunnan province; Shenzhen, Guangdong province; and Guiyang, Guizhou province, while the cities with worst air quality included a few cities in Heibei provinces and Ji'nan, Shangdong province and Beijing.