BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Air quality in Chinese cities dropped in the July, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE).

File photo: VCG

For 337 cities monitored by the ministry, the share of average good air quality days stood at 85.4 percent in July, down 6.9 percentage points year on year, MEE data showed.

The average PM2.5 density, a key indicator of air pollution, remained flat, while the average density of PM10 rose 5.3 percent year on year.

Haikou, Zhuhai and Lishui ranked top three on the list of 168 major cities' air quality in July while cities in the provinces of Hebei and Shanxi lagged behind.

Over the same period, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the neighboring area saw the share of average good air quality days fall 28.7 percentage points to 38.6 percent last month.

The central government launched a new round of environmental inspection in July to monitor environmental protection efforts by local governments and centrally administered state-owned enterprises.