Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Air Pollution in Chinese Cities

China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization has come at a staggering cost to the environment. In recent years, urban air pollution has been a serious environmental issue in Chinese cities that often hits news headlines in China and abroad. Based on the most recent data available, this paper employs two indices to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of some major air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), zone (O3), inhalable particulate matter (PM10), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), in China’s major cities and city regions. The results show that these pollutants display distinct spatial and seasonal variations. Overall, air pollution is much more serious in northern parts of the country, especially in large cities and a few major urban agglomerations, but we also find concentrations of air pollutants in urban agglomerations in southern China. Seasonally, Chinese cities suffer from air pollution especially PM2.5 pollution most in winter while summer is the cleanest season for most cities. Regional variations exist in composition of leading air pollutants and in influencing factors. Meteorological factors, such as wind speed, precipitation, temperature, air pressure, and relative humidity, often have important impacts on PM2.5 concentration, though their specific contributions vary across different cities. We argue that effective air pollution control policies should be regional in nature, but cross-border cooperation between regional and local governments is essential in order to tackle the problem of air pollution more effectively.