Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China, has one of the best air quality records in the country with at least 347 days of clean air annually for the last five years.

The regional environmental protection bureau on Friday published figures showing Lhasa had 347 days with good air quality in 2001, and 358 in 2002 and last year, the two years with the highest ratio of good air quality days in the past five years.

The city reported only 50 days with slight and one day with moderate air pollution, but no serious pollution, in the past five years, said the bureau, ascribing the good air quality to a series of measures taken by the local government to curb air pollution.

The authorities had closed nine cement production lines, five small steel plants and four paper mills in the past five years.

Fifteen leading industrial enterprises in the region were ordered to cut pollutant discharges. These enterprises now met the national standards for pollutant discharges.

By the end of last year, Tibet had spent more than 70 million yuan (US$8.75 million) on pollution control, with more than nine million yuan allocated by the central government.

Local environmental protection officials also monitored the emissions of more than 20,000 motor vehicles, ordered 163 local catering businesses to reduce soot discharges and closed 143 coal-burning furnaces in urban Lhasa.

Lhasa was the first city in China to ban the production, sale and use of disposable polystyrene foam dishes and food boxes in order to reduce "white pollution."

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2006)