But while, on the face of it, Beijing has serious problems with air pollution there are signs that real environmental progress has been brought about by the Olympics.
China has a growing environmental crisis. It is massively dependent on coal to generate electricity and its rapid and unchecked growth over the past 30 or more years has led to widespread pollution.
Seventy per cent of the country’s rivers are polluted and thanks to the choking smog of coal power stations and increasing car traffic only 44 per cent of China’s cities meet air quality standards.
Health officials estimate that 70 per cent of cancer cases are related to environmental pollution.
But the Beijing Olympics are providing a way out of the crisis and showcasing an alternative, greener future for China.
Greenpeace’s report on the games, China after the Olympics: Lessons from Beijing, praises what it calls, "Beijing's tremendous efforts and investment in environmental initiatives."
While it stops well short of giving it blanket approval, the report says the introduction of five new rail lines, the world’s largest fleet of natural gas powered buses (3,500 plus) and a guaranteed 20 per cent of the Olympic venues electricity coming from renewable sources offered lasting benefits to the city.
Before and during the Olympics, the city also temporarily closed 200 factories and took half of the city’s 3.3 million cars off the road in a bid to cut air pollution levels.
Greenpeace say the Chinese have already made the 2008 games greener than Athens.
The successful introduction of all of these initiatives and the benefits they are bringing; cleaner air, clearer roads and energy security are offering a template that other Chinese cities can follow.
A separate report from the Climate Group also revealed that China has become a world leader in renewable technology, exporting vast numbers of wind turbines and solar power technologies.
But while the Beijing Olympic programme showed China can tackle some of its environmental problems like energy supplies, others continue to be ignored.
"Beijing failed to take the opportunity of the Olympics to adopt zero-waste policy or comprehensive water conservation policies," revealed the report.
Water conservation has reached critical levels in China’s northeast region, where much of the urban population is based. But it may be that rural areas will suffer as authorities try to divert supplies to their growing cities.
Greenpeace’s report warns that Beijing like other cities needs to work harder on water treatment, re-use and rain collection technologies.
China knows the impact climate change and environmental degradation is having on its population. As well as the health and water shortage problems, it is suffering badly from worsening storms and desertification.
The much highlighted problems of smog in Beijing is something that is replicated across Chinese cities.
Away from the praise, the Greenpeace report makes a stark warning: "If Beijing doesn’t continue to tackle air pollution, upgrade its industrial technology and move away from coal as the dominant energy source then the environment and the people living in it will suffer."
"It is easy to pollute but much harder to clean up the damage. Air quality in Beijing is such an example. Despite the series of long and short-term plans by Beijing, air pollution remains one of the toughest challenges for the city," warned Greenpeace China’s Campaign Director, Lo Sze Ping.
It remains to be seen whether the example of Beijing was a one-off demonstration to showcase a city to the world or the start of a lasting legacy of environmental improvement.