Political advisers appear cautious about possible regulations to ease traffic jams in Beijing just as most cities in the country also face the same issues in China.

Some members of the 12th Beijing Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) expressed their concerns on easing jams in the capital by charging congestion fees and limiting people's use of private vehicles.

Shi Xiangyang, a member of the Beijing CPPCC, believes it's time for the municipal government to adjust their regulations on traffic.

"If the regulations cannot ease the congestions after it's been applied for over seven years, it is clearly not working. We have to change our approach," Shi told China Daily website during the CPPCC meeting in Beijing on Jan 21.

For the past seven years, Beijing has implemented a regulation that bans cars with number plates ending with different numbers on each work day to keep down traffic volume.

On days of heavy smog or special events, only half the vehicles are allowed on the roads.

Adviser Zhu Liang said it will inconvenience people's daily lives if a ban on half of all cars became a regular thing.

But Beijing is not even close to having a smooth flow of traffic.

According to a report by taxi-hailing company Didi Dache, people in Beijing wasted 7,972 yuan ($1,212) per person in traffic jams last year. On average, commuters in the city spent 52 minutes to complete a 19.2 km daily trip, the longest stretch compared to other Chinese cities.

Shi said the government needs to expand public transportation services, such as subways and light rail, which are currently insufficient to meet demand.

Public transport facilities should be comfortable and convenient to become the first choice when people plan to go out, he said. "This is the key point to solve the issue."

Shi said experience from overseas metropolises serve as good examples for Beijing on the thorny problem.

Tokyo, with less than five million cars in an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers, has a better traffic record than Beijing, which has six million cars in an area eight times bigger than Tokyo, added Shi.

"It's because of bad traffic management in Beijing," said Shi. "Limiting more cars and charging congestion fees may help a little in the beginning, but it will be of little use when the numbers of cars keep growing."

He suggested the government should examine the causes of the worst-jammed roads and come up with tailored solutions.

Earlier reports said the city is considering collecting congestion fees in certain downtown areas to reduce traffic. Similar measures have been used in other cities such as London.

But some advisers are also having a hard time agreeing on the idea.

"The congestion fee is not suitable for Beijing right now," said advisor Chen Xiaobing. He said the policy failed to touch the core problem, which is the lack of public transport.

"We have to be very cautious with lots of research and listening to voices from people," said Chen.

Greater clarity about smog alerts and more enforcement is needed to combat smog in Beijing, and to that end, municipal political advisers are making suggestions about fighting smog in their proposal during the city's local two sessions.

The members of the 12th Beijing Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), point out that the authorities need to take more specific control of forecast, analysis, supervision and punishment when dealing with air pollution.

Wang Yingchun, a CPPCC member and vice-chief of the Beijing Meteorological Service, talked about her concern that people are confused about weather warnings and air pollution alerts.

"Sometimes people think 'heavy fog red alert' means heavy pollution. That's not correct," Wang said.

She said to improve efficiency, the Meteorological Service should focus on monitoring, forecasting and sending early warnings on air pollution while the Beijing Bureau of Environmental Protection needs to work on how to deal with the heavy pollution and come up with measures.

Currently, both authorities send out pollution alerts.

In December Beijing twice issued a red alert for smog. But the alerts failed to mark the most polluted days.

It made people confused about whether the alerts were accurate.

Wang said the Meteorological Service noticed the situation and it needs to be improved to better serve the people.

"We are all on the same page that fighting smog is a long-term job. People need to be patient with government efforts," said Wang.

Zhang Qiangbin, an environment expert at China University of Petroleum and a CPPCC member, is focusing on tracking pollution sources.

"The main polluters differ every day even though smog looks equally unhealthy on different days," Zhang said.

The government needs to do more specific research into finding out who are the different polluters that cause smog, so they can take effective action, he said.

Cui Tiening, another member and an associate professor at Beijing University of Technology, thinks it's necessary to make clear the responsibilities of the government, companies and individuals in law.

Cui and Wang agreed that Beijing needs to make more detailed regulations and standards on fighting smog.

Whether the city can win the battle against the heavy haze depends on how well the law is put into practice.

Zhong Chonglei, chief of the supervision team of environmental protection in Beijing, said even though there are already some local regulations in place in Beijing, the plants that discharge the most pollution are relocating to neighboring provinces where the rules are not as strict. But the emissions still reach heavily populated Beijing.

"Companies will transfer to neighboring places with less strict regulations or lower standards on pollution discharge. So setting unified standards and cooperating together to supervise and punish the polluters in surrounding areas like Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province are urgent and crucial," said Zhong.

He said the bureau is understaffed, with just about 400 employees monitoring emissions in the entire Beijing, which is 16 times bigger than Hong Kong in size.

Environmental protection is not just about what the government does but also how people adopt a new green lifestyle.

The members suggest city dwellers can participate in the battle fighting smog by changing a habit such as taking public transport. Fireworks and charcoal barbecues should also be reduced to keep pollution down.

Big northern Chinese cities such as Beijing must fight pollution in whatever ways they can. Clean air is not a luxury, it is a necessity, and the smog should no longer be the most obvious conversation starter for Beijingers.

All smelly and polluted rivers and waterways in Beijing will be cleaned up with the help of recycled water in three years, local authorities said.

Thousands of outlets discharging wastewater have contaminated 141 waterways in the capital, according to the Beijing Water Authority.

This year will see 24 waterways cleaned in Chaoyang, Tongzhou, Haidian, Shunyi and Daxing districts. Another 33 are scheduled for the program, according to the authority.

The capital has 425 rivers and waterways with a total length of 6,400 km.

"Last year, we started to build 76 wastewater treatment plants, and 45 have been completed with a capacity to process 950 million cubic meters of recycled water. This year, 1 billion cubic meters of recycled water will be processed to help clean up smelly waterways," Jin Shudong, director of the Beijing Water Authority, said.

Recycled water is reclaimed from sewage by removing solids and impurities and can be used to irrigate land, recharge groundwater aquifers, or meet other commercial and industrial needs.

By the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), the city is expected to have the capacity to produce 1.2 billion cubic meters of recycled water to improve the ecology, Jin said.

Meanwhile, the authority has built 1,290 km of pipelines to intercept and treat sewage, and another 1,181 km are scheduled to be built this year.

Beijing is short of water resources, with only 150 cubic meters per person, less than half the worldwide standard of 300 cubic meters, which shows the importance of reclaiming wastewater, said Jin.

For him, one key factor in the deterioration of water quality is the growing population. Three years ago, Jin visited Qinghe River in northern Beijing and, to his surprise, the river that was clean in 2008 had already become tainted, he said.

Before 2008, there were only 900,000 residents along the banks of the Qinghe, but that number has tripled in five years and many pollutants have been discharged into the water, Jin said.

"Discharge and treatment facilities for polluted water lag behind the growth of population and have caused pollution," he said.

Wetlands for birds and ancient heritage need greater protection in a fast-developing and cosmopolitan city such as Beijing.

Local political advisors discussed how to improve the ecological environment at a panel in the capital.

Guo Geng, a professor at a research center for biodiversity protection in Beijing, said people need to learn more about birds' habitats.

He used the example that some people think a wetland is a wasteland and suggest renovating the land into a lawn or greenbelt or planting trees.

"There are uncountable lives - various birds and animals - using the wetland as their habitat and we cannot take that away from them,"said Guo.

He stressed that it helps Beijing to have a diversity of wildlife. He also pointed out people cannot solve problems without thinking about their connections to wildlife.

Reed marshes are common in Olympic Forest Park where much wildlife can be found but Guo had found most reeds had been cut off, leaving only very short roots. Staff at the park told him they cut the reeds to avoid fire hazards.

"It's a very thoughtless act," Guo said. "We should find other ways to prevent fire risks rather than simply ruining the home of the wildlife."

Cui Tiening, a professor at Beijing University of Technology, agreed saying: "We should know our ecological environment better to serve our city."

Cultural relics were another issue discussed during two sessions of the panel.

Beijing is planning to better protect cultural heritage and traditional culture in downtown Beijing, according to local officials.

Huang Yan, director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning, said the Dongcheng and Xicheng districts are the core areas of Beijing and that there will be systematic measures to relocate people to safeguard historic treasures.

Wang Shanfeng, head of Xicheng district government, said the district has 182 cultural relics with many dating back to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

"Each community is required to report the status of its cultural heritage and any action to damage it will be punished," Wang said.

Meanwhile, the districts have been attaching great importance to protecting the hutong (Beijing alleyways).

Kong Fanzhi, former chief of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the city needs to find a balance between protection of relics and urban city development.

"But now is a great opportunity to focus on protection as Beijing is relocating part of the population from downtown areas to suburban areas that could lessen pressure on this old town," said Kong.

Kong highlighted three things Beijing needs to do to bring out the city's historical charm.

"First, Beijing needs to rebuild some gate towers and city walls that have been torn-down to re-draw the outline of the city; second, we should remove illegal constructions that damage the central axis of the city, which is a unique and beautiful city landscape; last but not least, we need to protect the historical streets and Siheyuan (courtyard house) that are the city's treasure," Kong said.

The central axis or main artery of Beijing was originally a 7.8 km long street along which the city, including the Palace Museum, or Forbidden City, was built to realize an ideal vision in line with traditional Chinese design concepts dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911).

Kong believes Siheyuan is the essence of Beijing as an ancient imperial city with a long history: "When those old courtyards are gone, Beijing will be gone as a historical town."