When the Olympics conquer Beijing on August 8th, the city has to appear as green, clean and easy accessible as possible.

Since Sunday, new measures have been implemented to reduce the hefty – and increasing – number of cars in the capital. Now vehicles with even and odd number plates will be allowed on the roads only on alternate days, which means that just half of the capital's 3.29 million cars will be running on any given day.

One Beijinger who had to jump on board a bus on Sunday was Lin Fenjiang, whose vehicle has an odd license plate number, China Daily reports.

”It's okay with me. Buses are running very fast today. They're more time-efficient.”

The observation is backed up by Yao Zhenping, assistant to the general manager of the Beijing Public Transport Holdings Group, who said that more than 95 percent of the buses ran on schedule on Sunday. On a normal day, traffic congestion would make this impossible.

The same day, about 500 factories were closed temporarily in and around Beijing and in the industrial base of Tangshan in Tianjin, where the Olympic soccer qualifying matches will take place. In two months' time they will open again.

Beijing has spent about 120 billion yuan (about 11 billion euros) to clean the environment.