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Air pollution control has become one of the top priorities of China's “Ecological Civilization” development. As a quick response to the 2013 PM_2.5 episodes, the Chinese Government issued the “Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan” as the national strategy and roadmap for air quality improvements consisting of phased quantitative targets and concrete measures. Taking this into account, this study explores the spatiotemporal variations of the five conventional pollutants—PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, and O₃—as well as the Air Quality Index and primary pollutants in 338 Chinese cities from 2013 to 2017 in order to comprehensively understand China's current air pollution situation and evaluate the effectiveness of the Action Plan. The results indicate that: (1) the overall air quality has been significantly improved, with the concentrations of PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and SO₂ decreasing noticeably, although the still high …