This Day, That Year

Item from July 7, 1996, in China Daily: The Tianli gas station in Beijing serves leaded and unleaded gasoline to more than 1,000 customers a day. China now has enough unleaded gasoline to be able to phase out leaded fuels at least in the largest cities ... Earlier generations of internal-combustion engines relied on lead added to fuel as lubricant. But lead has been shown to be seriously harmful to humans and the environment.

China is home to eight of the world's 10 largest ports in terms of cargo handling capacity and had 264 million vehicles and motorcycles as of last year, all of which contribute significantly to air pollution, according to official statistics.

To step up the fight against air pollution, authorities have taken a series of measures to upgrade the quality of refined gasoline.