The first thing I see when I look outside my sixth floor apartment window each morning is black smoke billowing from the industrial chimney stacks that dot the Beijing skyline.
At least that was the case up to a few days ago when those clouds of pollution miraculously started to disappear.
The chimney stacks are being partly decommissioned in preparation for one of the most eagerly awaited visits ever to this ancient Chinese city. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is coming to town on an inspection tour before deciding who will host the 2008 games.
There will be 13 million broken hearts in Beijing if it is unsuccessful in its attempt, with a recent poll showing that 95 per cent of the city population is behind the Olympic quest.
In a suite of rooms in the Beijing Xinqiao Hotel, operation Olympics is well under way. Here BOBICO (Beijing Olympic Bid Committee) is busy putting together the final touches to help clinch this gold medal prize.
But while this is the nerve centre of the campaign, it seems everyone in the Chinese capital is involved in operation 2008. There is a palpable Olympic buzz in the city, with evidence of preparation for the inspection tour around every corner.
The most welcome byproduct of the bid, even if Beijing is not successful, is the cleaner air that citizens are already breathing. Some Beijingers still wear protective face masks, and the snow still gets black from soot, but there are signs that the municipal government is making a huge effort to do what the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, did for Dublin's smog just a decade ago.
For example, China's largest steel producer, the Capital Iron and Steel Company, has been ordered to reduce its output and to stop the operation of its blast furnaces before the end of March.
Other large polluting enterprises, such as the Yanshan Cement Plant, have been instructed this winter to reduce emissions significantly at a time air pollution is at its worst. Construction companies have been told to stop work during the strong winds, to cut down dust.
Householders are also playing their part. In the past, an estimated six million tons of coal for heating and cooking burned during the harsh Beijing winters. Now people are being encouraged to use high-quality coal with a low sulphur content in their boilers. In addition, natural gas is being used more widely.
According to the city authorities, the measures are already achieving results. While their figures are not independently verified and some cynics warn that we should take them with a pinch of salt, the Chinese do report remarkable improvements. Last year they say the number of days "with average" or better air quality reached 309, or 84 per cent of the year.
Days of good air quality accounted for 45 per cent of the year, according to the Beijing Municipal government. And 99.5 per cent of 5,000 industrial polluters have achieved an "acceptable" standard in industrial waste discharge, with defaulters ceasing production or paying fines.
The statistics go on forever and, in some cases, it would appear the Chinese doth protest too much.
For instance, in the December edition of BOBICO's Olympic newsletter, we are told that 66,000 buses in Beijing are now using gas. In the January edition, it says that 31,000 environmentally-friendly buses and taxis are in use in the city.
Meanwhile, in the glossy BOBICO transport brochure, we read that there are "more than 20,000 buses in Beijing, with half of them natural gas-fuelled pollution free buses". Someone, somewhere isn't getting their sums right.
The IOC committee will also hear when it visits on February 20th about the 3,000 hectares of land in and around Beijing being planted with trees. It will learn about the installation of low-sounding horns in cars to reduce noise pollution!
The large neon sign in the BOBICO office counts down the days to the announcement in July of the successful host Olympic city. The deputy publicity director of BOBICO, Ms Wen Wen, tells The Irish Times that the IOC visit is eagerly awaited.
However, the dramatic improvement in air quality in the last week and the obvious greening of Beijing is not exclusively related to the Olympic bid, she says.
"These are measures that have been put in place by the government to improve the environment for the people of the city, regardless of the Olympics," she adds. "These are improvements that will stay with the city long after the IOC committee has gone."
As well as blue skies over Beijing, the IOC will also be hit with an explosion of colour on the city's buildings.
Every municipal worker seems to have a paintbrush in his or her hand these days. Dreary Soviet-style apartments are receiving makeovers in a variety of colours.
The city's neighbourhood communities have also been given a paint budget to spruce things up. (Although in some cases the paint is only reaching the walls facing streets frequented by tourists!)
The pace of change will quicken dramatically if Beijing is successful in its efforts. It lost out to Sydney in the battle to host the 2000 games - and you definitely get the impression a second rejection would be too much for the Chinese to take.
A silver medal won't be enough this time - even if the bid itself has ensured that the people of Beijing are breathing a whole lot easier.