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)