Beijing - couldn't they clean up their act?

Watched some of the run up to the opening of the Beijing Olympics.  Of course, it's an excellent opportunity for dedicated young athletes from around the globe to match their strength and skills.

Of course, the Bird's Nest Stadium is a hugely impressive piece of engineering, and running the Olympic  torch along the Great Wall of China would have produced some spectacular views, had we been able to see anything.

Today's shots show the stadium, and most other landmarks, barely visible through the thick, yellowy white smog which seems to engulf everything, despite the State closing down hundreds of factories. If this is what it's like when the factories are shut - what's it like normally?

Beijing's Olympic budget is apparently twice that of the UK in 2012, at twenty two billion pounds.

Couldn't they spend just a little cleaning up their pollution act?