The urban area of Taizhou and its three subordinated counties of Linhai, Wenling and Sanmen are recently listed as Zhejiang provincial demonstration areas for air quality. [Photo/taizhou.com.cn］ 

The urban area of Taizhou and its three subordinated counties of Linhai, Wenling, and Sanmen were recently listed as Zhejiang provincial demonstration areas for air quality.

This designation means that the air quality in these areas must meet national grade II standards. China divides air quality into six levels, with grade VI being the worst. 

The result is largely due to efforts made by local authorities to tackle pollution. 

The city shut down 84 polluting enterprises and rectified over 1,500 enterprises last year to reduce pollution. The city also put 3,260 new energy vehicles into use and phased out 1,265 old high-polluting ones. 

An air quality monitor network with 11 monitoring sites across the city and a monitoring data release platform have also been put in place in the city. 

The data collected from these is connected to the provincial air monitoring platform, forming an important part of the provincial integrated network for air monitoring. 

In 2019, Taizhou ranked ninth in terms of air quality among 168 major cities nationwide. Its air quality met national standards on 96.8 percent of days throughout the year.