Recently, the author learned from Chenzhou Ecological Environment Bureau that the Provincial Department of Ecological Environment released the first quarter of the province's urban air quality. In the first quarter, Chenzhou City's air quality index was 2.66, ranking first in the province. Compared with the same period of last year, it was 3.55, up 25.1 percent year on year.

From January to March this year, the average number of excellent days in 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan Province was 92.3 percent, an increase of 15 percent.

According to the comprehensive index of urban ambient air quality, from January to March, the ranking of urban ambient air quality of 14 cities and prefectures in the province from good to bad is: Chenzhou City, Zhangjiajie City, Huaihua City, Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Western Hunan (Huaihua and Miao Autonomous Prefecture rank third), Yongzhou City, Shaoyang City, Loudi City, Hengyang City, Changsha City, Xiangtan City, Changde City, Zhuzhou City, Yueyang City and Yiyang City.

Chen Zhichun, section chief of Atmospheric Environment and Climate Change Department of Chenzhou Ecological Environment Bureau, said that the average number of excellent days in the first quarter of the city was 100 percent, up 8.9 percent from 91.1 percent in the same period of last year, and the average concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) and inhalable particles (PM10) decreased 24.3 percent and 35.7 percent year on year.