Beijing meets national air pollutant standard for first time:

An unusual silence reigned in Beijing and many other cities in China this Lunar New Year, as fireworks– as quintessential to the celebration as dragons, red packets and Reunion Dinner– were banned to keep air pollution levels down.

Its novelty would attract the attention of the foreign press, but the ban was just the tip of a huge, five-year long iceberg of policies that have seen Beijing go from poster-city of emergency-level air pollution to one of the top cities for air quality in the country.

Early February, Beijing met its own standards for particulate pollution for the first time since these goals were set in 2012– standards that also put in motion a series of policies and regulations, from dramatically reducing reliance on coal-based energy and shutting down polluting factories in the provinces neighbouring Beijing, to strict personal transport rules to bring down car emissions and, yes, even passing potentially unpopular prohibitions like the firework ban.

Signs of improved air quality in the midst of what is usually smoke haze season were clear this year, with the capital city and its surrounds reporting a majority of “good air” days in the month, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.