The Chinese government has implemented strict controls to reduce the emissions of air pollutants from industries, vehicles and construction sites during the Beijing Olympic Games. We use operational GOME-2 tropospheric NO2 and SO2 products developed at the German Aerospace Centre, in the framework of EUMETSAT´s Satellite Application Facility on Ozone and Atmospheric Chemistry Monitoring (O3M-SAF) to assess the effectiveness of these controls and to study the impact on pollutants over Beijing and neighboring provinces. Preliminary analysis indicates a reduction in NO2 concentrations from July to September compared to 2007 over Beijing and surrounding areas. Changes in SO2 concentrations over Beijing are not so apparent because SO2 is a longer lived gas and more likely to be transported from other regions. With the aid of the HYSPLIT model, the influence of transport processes on the SO2 concentrations over Beijing can be estimated.