China goes "green" for Olympics

The host city Beijing and its neighboring areas are taking steps to improve air quality ahead of this year's Olympic Games. The measures are part of the Chinese government's promise to hold a "Green Olympics".

This is the viewing platform on top of the China Central Television Tower. The whole city of Beijing is laid out in clear sight.

Tour guide Wu Lingyu said, "Visibility has improved a great deal from here. We received 80-thousand more visitors last year than in 2006."

Beijing has taken a hard line on improving air quality for the Olympic Games. Authorities in the capital have already relocated hundreds of heavy polluting businesses, and have changed thousands of coal-powered boilers into electric ones.

The four neighboring provinces and Tianjin Municipality have also drawn up measures to fight pollution during the high-profile international sports event.

These measures include installing systems to reduce sulfur emissions by power plants, constructing central heating facilities to help cut the use of coal, and building monitoring stations in major cities near Beijing to collect data on emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, carbon monoxide and other chemicals.