Industry in cities a pollution nightmare

THE deadly air pollution in Beijing is a result of the country's policy of building heavy industries in city centres and is practically impossible to tackle, a Beijing magazine said.

Marriage & Family said the Shijingshan district in western Beijing was picturesque in the early 1950s.

But it became Beijing's worst-polluted area after Capital Steel (Shougang), China's third-largest steel complex, was built in the 1960s, the monthly said.

'When I lived in Shougang, I did not hang clothes outside the flat because they would become even dirtier than they were before they were washed,' a former Shougang employee was quoted as saying.

The district's air is further polluted by a power station, the monthly said.

Streets and buildings are covered with a thick layer of black dust and residents suffer from respiratory and other illnesses.