The warm steam inside the village hairdressers’ shop feels unusually clean on a cold winter’s day: in Juncheng, Hebei province, piped gas has replaced the coal that used to leave a sticky residue on every surface. 

This cleanliness comes at a cost, calculated down to the penny by the half-dozen customers waiting their turn for a wash and a haircut. Gas is usually more expensive than coal but, for the moment, the government is paying.

In recent years, a wave of subsidy spending has propped up the economy in the hundreds of small towns and villages of the province that surrounds Beijing. From ecological toilets to cash payments for heating homes with gas, the payouts have helped soften the economic cost of a campaign to improve air quality in the famously smoggy capital.