Early action held smog to lower levels

Measures to control emissions had positive results, experts say

Since an orange alert for air pollution took effect on Saturday, Beijing has adopted a raft of emergency measures to meet the smog challenge head-on.

On Saturday and Sunday, the city's housing and urban-rural development authorities investigated more than 2,000 construction sites, finding that 62 of the sites did not sufficiently improve pollution controls. Those sites were ordered to make corrections.