CHINA / National

China has busy but orderly Labor Day
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-05-02 08:58

No vital public accident was registered on Monday, the first day of the week-long International Labor Day holiday -- a prime time for Chinese to travel around.

No serious public security cases, or vital traffic accidents were reported in the national capital of Beijing Monday, although numerous domestic and overseas travelers paid visits to various scenic spots here, according to a spokesman with the municipal public security bureau.

More than 3,000 policemen were on duty Monday, who helped to ensure a smooth traffic flow around some key tourist resorts in the city.

Passenger flow to the main scenic spots in Beijing, including the Badaling section of the Great Wall and the Palace Museum, increased by an average of 11.65 percent as against the same period of last year, according to the local tourism authority.

The Huangshan Mountain, a popular scenic spot in East China's Anhui Province, imposed a computer-based monitoring system to control the entry and flow of travelers in an effort to prevent overcrowding.

Administrator of the region said more than 9,000 visitors had arrived by Monday afternoon, up 35 percent year-on-year, but no accident was registered.

While domestic trips remain popular, more Chinese are planning visits to Hong Kong and Macao during the seven-day holiday as the Chinese mainland has allowed individual travelers in six more cities to go to the two special administrative regions.

Residents of Nanchang, Changsha, Nanning, Haikou, Guiyang, and Kunming will from now on have more convenient tourist access to Hong Kong and Macao with approval of the State Council.

In Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan Province, more than 260 citizens obtained travel permits on Monday. In Nanning, capital of Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 688 people are applying for the permission.

The Individual Visit Scheme to Hong Kong and Macao started in July 2003. By the end of February this year, 38 cities on the mainland had joined the program. Hong Kong alone had hosted 12.27 million mainland tourists under the scheme by the end of February.

Although the holiday means a time to relax and have fun for a large proportion of Chinese, more than 2,100 workers had to keep working at the site of the National Stadium of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"The project is undergoing a critical stage in terms of the difficulties in precisely welding the parts of the steel framework," said a project manager working at the site in northern Beijing.

"Our experts have worked out solutions and we will build a new miracle in the world's architectural circles," the manager touted.