When people in Beijing put on their pollution masks, it makes international headlines. But the effort to clean up the air in northern China depends on steel-producing cities such as Chengde, whose 3m people are more worried about jobs than smog.
The authorities have become so concerned at the state of the air in the Chinese capital that they want the industrial cities of Hebei province that encircle Beijing to cut coal use and steel and cement capacity to ease the problem.
But for Chengde and other cities, where incomes are lower and steel mills with their belching smokestacks are valued employers, that translates into fewer jobs. The issue of keeping jobs in cities without other industries makes the whole shift much more complicated and politically dangerous for Beijing.