Inspector finds work hard but satisfying

In his 21 years as an environmental inspector, Yin Wei has never had an assignment as intense as his most recent one: heading a team to help clean up China's smog-plagued north.

He was among those chosen for the first round of the Ministry of Environmental Protection's yearlong anti-pollution inspection of 28 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas.

"It's the largest inspection I've been involved with," said the 41-year-old, who usually inspects industries in Lyuliang, Shanxi province. "The schedule is really busy. We start at 8 am, report our results by 9 pm and then start to assign the next day's tasks. I didn't get to sleep before midnight."