About 146 tons of garbage was collected in the Tian'anmen Square
in downtown Beijing during the weeklong May Day holiday which ended
on Monday as the Chinese capital reported a record high inflow of
visitors.
Three hundred sweepers have been working in two shifts to
collect the garbage, which was nine times more than usual,
according to Zhang Zhiqiang, an official in charge of the cleaning
work in the Tian'anmen Square area.
The 440,000-square-meter square -- about the size of 63 football
fields, is among the world's biggest public squares and one of the
most popular tourist destinations in Beijing.
The Chinese capital received a total of 4.86 million tourists
from home and abroad in the past seven days, an increase of 8.4
percent over last year, and reaped a revenue of 4.1 billion yuan
(US$530 million).
More than 2,000 sanitation workers were mobilized in Beijing
each day during the holiday. They collected some 30,000 tons of
garbage in this period.
(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2007)
