An important post-Olympics debate is taking place on China's Internet forums¹.

It has nothing to do with the record gold medal haul or the successful organization of the 2008 Games, but stems from the preparations taken to ensure the nation's capital would present its best face to the world.

Faced with one of the world's serious air pollution problems, the municipal government took half the city's cars off the roads with an alternating odd-even license² plate system from July 20.

The smog was already a subject of intense international focus with some foreign athletes and delegations³ openly voicing concerns for their health.

When the Games opened on August 8, a grey haze⁴ still hung over the city and Chinese officials and weather experts argued it was humidity or "fog" -- not smog -- despite claims to the contrary.

But in the following days it gradually cleared and Beijing meteorological chiefs boasted the best summer weather in 10 years.

Not that they needed the scientific data and statistics to prove it -- Beijing residents, long used to irritated throats and warnings to stay indoors on bad air days, quickly realized the improvement themselves.

Now the debate is spreading on-line: whether the motoring restrictions⁶ should be continued or not.

An online survey on portal site www.news.cn shows 56.62 percent of the over 10,000 interviewees support a permanent motoring restriction⁵ methods while 40.62 percent disagree.

Many people who had expressed annoyance⁷ over giving up their cars for blue skies are intensely scared of returning to days of choking smog and rush-hour congestion⁸ when the restrictions end after the Paralympics.

The Beijing traffic authorities have admitted receiving many submissions⁹ from car owners, saying they were comfortable with the odd-even number system and hoping it would last.

For long it was argued that economic development was essential to improving the lives of the Chinese people: why should they not have the cars and modern conveniences that are the trappings of the developed world?