Six cities in Hebei rank among the bottom 10 cities with the worst air quality in the first 11 months, according to a report released last Tuesday on the air quality of key cities in China by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP).
根据环保部上周二发布的国内主要城市空气质量报告，今年前11个月，空气质量垫底的十座城市中河北省占据六席，保定、唐山及其省会城市石家庄均在其列。
The six Hebei cities include Baoding, Tangshan and provincial capital Shijiazhuang, which ranked alongside Henan's Zhengzhou, Shandong's Jinan, Shanxi's Taiyuan and Shaanxi's Xi'an as the country's most polluted cities.
河南郑州、山东济南、山西太原、陕西西安也在全国空气污染最严重的城市之列。

Luo Yi, the MEP's head of environmental monitoring, said that 338 cites above prefecture-level had acceptable air quality on 80.5% of days from January to November, an increase of 2.6 percentage points year on year.
环保部环境监测司司长罗毅介绍，1-11月，全国338个地级以上城市空气质量优良天数比例为80.5%，同比提高2.6个百分点。
However, the November statistics showed an increase in PM2.5 and PM10 density in the 338 cities compared with that of last year, with the number of days with good air quality accounting for just 71.6%.
不过，11月的数据显示，338个城市的PM2.5和PM10浓度同比有所上升，空气质量优良天数比例仅为71.6%。
Experts said that due to the influence of bad meteorological conditions, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Northeast China were besieged by heavy pollution several times last month.
专家称，受不利气象条件影响，上个月京津冀及东北地区曾多次出现重污染天气。
Some northern cities experienced sandy and dusty weather three times, which led to an increase in particles in the air.
部分北方城市出现了三次沙尘天气，导致空气中的颗粒物有所增加。