More than 1,000 tourists got lost in Tian'anmen Square on Monday
as hundreds of thousands of people flocked there to celebrate
National Day.
Beijing police in charge of the square area said yesterday they
received 1,576 requests for help or telephone calls from tourists
seeking friends or relatives lost in the throng.
The number of wayward revelers was up 500 on May 1, the first
day of the week-long Labor Day holiday. Most who went astray were
not from Beijing and not familiar with the famous tourist site,
police said.
What happened at the world's largest square reflects the huge
temporary migration during the country's week-long National Day
holiday.
Police estimated that about 1 million people from across the
country visited Tian'anmen Square on Monday, the first day of the
seven-day holiday.
They included the 200,000 spectators who attended the national
flag raising and lowering ceremonies in the morning and
afternoon.
The Beijing environment bureau said the hordes left behind about
14 tons of garbage on the 440,000 sqm square, which is the size of
64 football fields.
More than 500 sweepers worked in two shifts around the clock to
make sure no piece of litter lay on the ground for more than 20
minutes, the bureau said.
More than 20,000 sanitation workers are mobilized in Beijing
each day during the October holiday.
But the bustling crowds are good news for shops and
restaurants.
The Beijing Commercial Information Consulting Center said
consumers had spent more than 400 million yuan (US$51.6 million) in
the city on Monday, 6.3 percent more than last year.
The center said the amount included 134 million yuan (US$17
million) for department stores, 160 million yuan (US$20 million)
for supermarkets and 9.16 million yuan (US$1.18 million) for
restaurants.
Experts with the center said clothing, home appliances, cell
phones and jewelry were all popular items during the holiday.
Nationwide, the National Holiday Office said yesterday that 119
scenic spots in its monitoring system had received 1.98 million
tourists on Monday and 3.03 million tourists yesterday.
A record of 5.72 million passengers traveled by train and
another 582,800 passengers by air on Monday.
No major accidents were reported across the country, except for
a 54-year-old Thai woman who died of a heart attack on Monday when
she visited a temple in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
(China Daily October 3, 2007)
