Beijing air 'cleaner' since Games By Michael Bristow BBC News, Beijing Hazy Beijing air - 4 August 2009 Despite the claimed improvements, Beijing still has smoggy days Beijing is enjoying the best air quality this decade because of measures taken during last year's Olympic Games, officials have said. They say there were 171 days of low pollution in the first seven months of this year, 22 more than in 2008. One year after the games, independent experts agree that air quality in the Chinese capital has improved. But they say the city still has some way to go before it can be compared with the world's cleanest cities. And the clean-up came at a cost. China will find it hard to spend similar amounts of money improving its other polluted cities. "All the major measures taken by the city were expensive and not easily replicated elsewhere," said Yang Ailun, of Greenpeace in China. 'Blue sky days' Beijing's notorious air pollution was a major concern for a