Hot spots impose caps on visitor numbers during holiday period

The iconic Tian'anmen Square in central Beijing is usually filled with flowers, pot plants and topiary, but on Thursday there were some new installations: hundreds of toilets. There are now 445 portable toilets in eight locations in the square, and 132 assistants are on hand to point visitors in the right direction.

"We expect a huge number of tourists during Golden Week, so we have brought in these extra toilets," said Zhang Zhiqiang from the Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group.

The week-long National Day holiday began on Thursday. More than 532 million domestic trips are expected to be made from Oct 1 to 7, according to the China Tourism Academy, and a range of measures are being rolled out to ensure happy vacations.