The good news is...

... that Beijing had a record-high number of "blue sky" days in 2008, including a long stretch during and after the Olympics when the air really was marvelously clear and clean.

The bad news is that today counts as one of the "blue sky" days, since the pollution index is 96, just below the blue-sky cutoff of 100. Ten am, December 12, 2008:



Maybe it's just fog. And, I can see the sun:
 


For the big-picture perspective on serious Chinese efforts to improve the situation, please see here.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2008/12/the-good-news-is/9192/