The Ministry of Environmental Protection has released its annual report on the air quality of the 74 major cities on Monday. 66 of them failed to meet standards for six major airborne pollutants.

Of the ten cities with the worst pollution, eight were in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Top of the list was Baoding, about 150 kilometers southwest of Beijing. Only eight cities met the national standard. Haikou, in the southern island province of Hainan had the best air quality last year.

Other cities listed as having good air quality were Lhasa, Shenzhen and Kunming. But while nine out of ten of China's big cities failed to meet standards, authorities say it's an improvement on 2013.