Companies look ahead to cleaner business

In 2014, I visited many power plants, cement factories and steel companies in Beijing and Hebei province, areas that suffered from severe air pollution, accompanying environmental protection authorities as they made their inspections.

When heavy smog shrouded many cities, especially in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, it was a call for me to prepare to cover stories about the pollution's influence on residents' lives, the technology used to minimize pollutants and what companies and governments were doing to resolve the issue.

Local governments worked hard to curb air pollution as the central government subsidized efforts to reduce harmful emissions and the nation's top legislature passed a law to grant more power to environmental authorities. There have even been volunteers in every village in Hebei province to monitor air quality since the second half of the year.