China's traditional Lantern Festival arrives this Tuesday, and 19 lantern shows will light up major places of interest in Beijing, including the Palace Museum, Jingshan Park, Daguanyuan Park, Chaoyang Park, and Yuanmingyuan Park. According to reports, tickets for the hottest lanterns shows have already been sold out. 

The Chinese capital is anticipating massive vehicle and pedestrian traffic after nightfall on the day of the festival, and traffic authorities have issued alerts to commuters to avoid passing through certain hotspots such as Joy City Xidan, Joy City Chaoyang, Sanlitun, and Qianmen Dashilanr. 

The Palace Museum announced its lantern show on its website on the afternoon of Feb. 17, and reservations for Tuesday and Wednesday were fully booked instantly. The museum's website even went down briefly on Monday as more people tried to reserve show tickets.

Tickets and reservations for many other lantern shows also ran out Monday, including the ones at Jingshan Park, Daguanyuan Park, Chaoyang Park, and Yongdingmen Park. Festival goers also grabbed all 10,000 tickets for the Yuanmingyuan Park Lantern Show that were available on booking site Ctrip.com. 

Tickets for the lantern show at Jingshan Park on Tuesday were only available through the "Shijingshan Wen E" app, and no tickets will be sold at the door on site. All tickets had been sold out on Monday night after they became available at 4 p.m. that day. 

Moreover, the park will close at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Ticket service at the park will stop at 2 p.m., and by then no visitors will be allowed to enter the park.  

A variety of lantern fairs and shows will kick off Tuesday in the Tiananmen area and throughout Beijing's districts, and they are expected to attract an avalanche of festival goers. 

Due to the possibly massive size of crowds, people should be reminded to check the traffic conditions issued by the authorities or the real-time road conditions, and are recommended to avoid the crowded spots.

According to Beijing Public Transportation Group, the transfer waiting time of 61 major bus lines such as Line 1, 5, 103, Extra Line 12 (inner and outer rings) and Extra Line 19 will be decreased during the festival, and more bus lines will be operating during the evening rush hours and late evening. On Tuesday and Wednesday, two makeshift subway lines will be providing passenger service from the Forbidden City to Chaoyangmen and Xidan respectively.

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