The city of Guiyang, Guizhou province recently levied fines on its 10 attached counties because of their bad air quality, and gave a reward to Xiuwen, the one good county, as a way to enforce its ecological ruling on better air quality and a livable environment that took effect this past July.

The ruling allows the municipal government to monitor air quality of areas under its jurisdiction on a monthly basis and publish air quality reports every quarter, giving details for each area and rewards and penalties, based on the PM10 and PM2.5 and composite index.

Any county or district that fails to meet standards for three months in a row can be fined and the area with the best air quality gets a reward. That recent report showed the Huaxi district getting a fine of 3.18 million yuan ($502,000), the highest, while Xiuwen county received 790,000 yuan for its good environment.

Eco-civilization officials say that those areas that get fined have to pay the bill by the end of the year.