Caijing magazine is an indispensable Chinese publication, conveniently now with an English-language website. Its Chinese name means economics and finance. Its editor, Hu Shuli, is one of the most influential women in China and is as brave as a lion. The business press in China has considerable latitude. She uses it.

In the latest issue: news on the ‘can Beijing possibly clear up its air before the Olympics?’ question. The magazine interviews Zhao Fengtong, vice mayor of Beijing with responsibility for traffic and related issues. The Asian Wall Street Journal has an English version of the full interview — Caijing’s English site has only a summary.

Zhao Fengtong discusses the recent experiment of banning half of Beijing’s cars from the streets for two days, to see what difference it made.

During the four days of experimentation, the entire city saw a decrease of 1.31 to 1.36 million vehicles on the road. This produced immediate results in air-quality improvement. The scientific information obtained from this provided a scientific basis on which to improve and perfect measures to guarantee Beijing’s air quality for the 29th Olympics. He is confident that there will be good air quality during the 2008 Olympics.
Source: Cajing