Beijing's air pollution problem truly hit the mainstream in 2013, beginning with January's now infamous "Airpocalpyse" where the city hit new lows in air quality, and continuing right through this past weekend when the city government declared that pollution control efforts have already begun to pay off.

During the year, the term "PM2.5" became part of every city residents' vernacular and entrepreneurs both big and small took consumer protection to a whole new level with a proliferation of home air fliter and face masks choices.

Here's a look back at some of the top developments in Beijing's Annus Horribilus of Bad Air:

1. The Mask Factor: Breathing Air for Cheap

As if on cue, theBeijinger's prescient January issue compared a few of the popluar choices of air masks just before the Airpocalypse descended upon us.

2. Is Beijing Air A Laughing Matter?

Under the relentless gloom of January's airpocalypse, we offered up a series of Beijing Air-related memes to help laugh off the fact that most of us were struggling to breathe.

3. Is Air Pollution as Bad as Smoking?

In March, beijingkids' columnist Dr Richard St Cyrtook on the question of whether breathing Beijing air was the equivalent of smoking cigarettes. His findings? There's no truth to the rumor that passing most of the Beijing air you breathe through a cigarette filter makes it cleaner.

4. Will the City Pull the Plug on Fireworks?

In their neverending pursuit of seeking scapegoats that won't disembowel industrial production or infringe upon the rights of the city's Rolls Royce owners, officials threatened to ban the traditional lighting off of fireworks for the Chinese New Year holiday to help clean the air. In the end, tradition won out over particulate matter concerns and the holiday went on with the typical cacophony of years past.

5. Breathe Easy: One Foreigner's Pollution-Defying Bike

Beijing-based artist Matt Hope created an air-filtering bike that got plenty of press in March but unfortunately to date has not revolutionized vehicular traffic in the capital. Later Hope answered a few question from theBeijinger contributor Kyle Mullin on his invention here.

6. Beijing's Pollution Levels: The Worst in the Solar System?

On April 1 scientists declared Beijing's air the worst not only of planet Earth but the known solar system when a study of Venus' atmosphere from the Pioneer 11 space probe showed that the planet has lower levels of PM2.5 than Beijing.

7. Two Hot Reasons Beijing's Air Quality Sucks

Later in April, the Ministry of Blaming Everything Else Except the Real Problem came up with two new scapegoats for Beijing's air pollution woes: streetside barbecues and the burning of offerings at various local temples. This lead to a summertime crackdown on lamb kebab merchants, and in November officials declared victory after shuttering 500 roadside roasters.

8. The Nose Knows: Trying out the Infipure Invisible Air Mask

In the spring, Beijing-based entrepreneur Francis Law debuted the in-nostril "invisible" air mask, a new approach to keeping gunk out of your lungs. A handful of Beijinger noses gave them a consumer test here.

9. Breathe It and Weep: Greenpeace Finds Out What, Exactly, is Going into Our Lungs

You can always count on Greenpeace to deliver a bit of feel-good news, and they didn’t fail with their May in-depth diagnostic report on what it is we take in with every breath in Beijing, including arsenic, mercury and lead. Breathe on, brother!

10. Pollution Causes 14 Percent Drop in Beijing Tourism

Over the summer it was revealed that the number of tourist visitors to Beijing was down 14% for the first half in 2013, a fact that officials attributed at least partially to Beijing becoming the worldwide poster boy for bad air. This drop occurred despite efforts to boost tourism to the city by allowing 72-hour visa-free visits. The news was even worse for residents of northern China as pollution was conclusively linked to a reduced life span of 5.5 years.

11. Make Your Own DIY Air Filter for RMB 166

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and this was proven true this year by the efforts of visiting Fulbright Scholar Thomas Talhelm, who felt that investing thousands of RMB for a top-of-the-line home air filter to help him breathe for his short stay in Beijing was not worth the cost. Thus he used his wits and a few easily-obtained parts to develop a RMB 166 air filter you can build at home in 15 minutes. In extensive testing done with laser particle counters, he concludes that his contraption competes with the big brand machines in filtering PM2.5.

12. Coming Soon: "Smog Days" that Shut Down Schools?

In October the government issued a new set of measures to deal with future "airpocalypses" that will certainly wreak havoc if and when they are enacted: the plan includes shutting down schools and reverting to an odds-and-evens ban on automotive traffic whenever the air is forecasted to be bad for 3 consecutive days. To date, the emergency measures have not been called into action.

13. Healthy Hipsters: Vogmask Teams With Plastered 8 for Designer Masks

Finally, style and comfort have been combined with effectiveness in a series of PM2.5-filtering masks designed by local coolness merchants Plastered T-Shirts for Vogmask. The masks, released this fall, have proven so popular that they are currently completely out of stock.

14. Ten Great Ways to Solve Beijing's Pesky Air Pollution Problem

With scientists in the capital hard at work dreaming up new pollution control techniques like shooting liquid nitrogen into the atmosphere, we here at theBeijinger decided to further the debate by suggesting some additional ideas. Hey, they sound crazy ... but they just might work.