A city really needs blue sky and clear water green, maybe even some green hills, and that is exactly what the government of Taiyuan has promised to do, so they’ve decided to stop using small boilers, to promote clear energy.

In fact, Taiyuan, which is in Shanxi province, even tore down villages inside the city and transformed its heating system, which was using 25,000 blackened chimneys, by pulling them all down, on Jan 21.

And, last year, its environmental quality improved when eight heavily polluted enterprises were shut down, including the Taiyuan Chemical Industry Group and Taiyuan Coal Gasification Co. At the same time, 27 villages within the city limits, and two other areas, transformed their heating system by removing 20,900 blackened chimneys.

This year, Taiyuan will not just shut down at least 100 heavily polluted enterprises, but also ask the coal, ferroalloy, and building materials industries, which are serious contaminators, clean up or shut down. Also on the agenda are finishing the work of four rivers, extending the central heating system to more than 20 million square meters, and applying cleaner energy to 200 boilers under 20 tons, within the ring road.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw