Workers in Tangshan, Hebei province, clear the rubble from a demolished 450-cubic-meter furnace at the start of the province's campaign to curb pollution and eliminate excessive iron production. [Photo / Xinhua]

SHIJIAZHUANG - Hebei, a northern region with the worst air in China, has shut down 8,347 small high-polluting firms in the past year in an attempt to ease its notorious air pollution, new data has showed.

According to statistics published monthly by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Hebei is home to as many as seven of the country's 10 most polluted cities.

The province faces an enormous challenge as its air pollution is a source of public complaints and anger not only locally, but also in neighboring regions like Beijing.

Severe smog hit Beijing, Tianjin and almost all major cities in Hebei on Thursday, with readings of PM 2.5, small airborne particles posing the biggest health risk, exceeding or nearing 500.

Yang Zhiming, deputy director of the Hebei provincial bureau of environmental protection, told a press briefing on Thursday that the agency will beef up the industrial crack-down as some small high-polluting plants are being relocated to remote areas to avert supervision.