Beijing will limit the movement of the autos with 19 seats that have not garnered the mark of environmental friendliness within the second-ring urban area, beginning from September 1.  

Only those autos with 19 seats or over that are environmentally friendly, namely up to the Euro I standard, may enter downtown Beijing.

 

CEN learned this from a press briefing by the city’s environmental protection administration and the bureau of traffic control.

 

The pollutants discharged from the tail gas of autos can hardly disperse in downtown area as there are lots of high risers.

 

The control area will gradually expand in stages after November 1 in light of the air pollution.

 

It will expand to within the third-ring downtown Beijing by 2004.

 

This move will affect 300,000 autos, 130,000 in downtown Beijing. There are about 3,000 autos coming from outside of Beijing. These autos with very backward tail gas control devices are environmentally unfriendly.

 

Pei Chenghu, deputy director of the Beijing environmental protection administration, said that this is an effective move foreign countries used to take and is part of the city’s efforts to control air pollution.

 

(www.cenews.com.cn August 11, 2003)