Society

Choppers to cope with temple fair traffic

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-05 11:28

BEIJING -- Visitors to Beijing's temple fairs can see helicopters hovering in the sky as local police authority have decided to strengthen security surveillance over popular festival events through use of choppers for the first time.

At temple fairs, visitors could get a glimpse of the traditional Chinese celebrations for the Lunar New Year, including lion dance, stilt walking, and taste old-fashioned street snacks.

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More than 1.4 million people visited Beijing's temple fairs between Wednesday to Friday, the first three days of China's week-long Spring Festival holiday, up 43 percent over the same period of last year, according to the latest statistics released by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The temple fairs in the Ditan Park and the Longtan Park, both in downtown Beijing, were the most well known, and the former hosted an average of 150,000 daily, and the latter 100,000 visitors.

On Thursday, the first day of the Chinese lunar New Year, the Year of Rabbit, a record high of 235,000 people visited the temple fair held in the Ditan Park.

Police sources said that choppers were mobilized for the first time to carry out observation in the air and assist ground controllers to take immediate measures to divert crowds in an efficient way.

They predicted that the heavy traffic around temple fairs would last until Sunday, and reminded visitors to avoid the daily rush hour from 10 am to 3 pm