Efforts focus on smog 'routes'

Governments in cities along three pollution "highways" have been told to coordinate their efforts to cut emissions and help prevent the kind of smog that again blanketed the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region on Sunday and is expected to persist for five days.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has identified 20 cities that are required to beef up pollution controls and work to unify emergency response standards.

The cities lie on three routes - western, central and eastern - on which airborne pollutants travel north due to geological and meteorological conditions, according to Xue Wenbo, director of airborne simulation for the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning.