Photo taken on Dec. 22, 2022 shows a flock of wild ducks flying over the Haizhou Bay of Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. (CFP Photo)

Jiangsu has three cities ranked among top 20 on the list of 168 cities' air quality, released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on January 28.

Changzhou, Lianyungang and Nanjing took 5th, 18th and 19th places respectively, the first time for the two later cities to rise to the top 20 nationwide.

In Nanjing, the PM 2.5 density, a key indicator of air pollution, dropped 4.1% year on year to 27.9 micrograms per cubic meter, the best result ever monitored in the city. The share of days with good air quality stood at 79.7% in the capital city of Jiangsu.

The PM 2.5 density in Changzhou and Lianyungang also dropped to 33 and 30 micrograms per cubic meter respectively. The two cities saw their share of days with good air quality at 76.7% and 83.6% respectively.