Han Ximin

    SHENZHEN residents planning to pay their respects to ancestors are urged to avoid a rush during the Qingming Festival holidays that run from April 4 to 6.

    Around 100,000 people visited cemeteries to pay tribute to their ancestors over the weekend, a week before the Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, which falls on Friday. The number was 50 percent fewer than the same period last year.

    Cui Aimin, vice head of the city’s cemetery administration office, said visitor number would peak Friday.

    “During the Qingming Festival last year, there were around 1.1 million visits,” he said. “The number this year will be no less because we have a new three-day holiday.”

    Shenzhen bus companies will organize 60 buses at bus stations near the city’s three major cemeteries to ensure a smooth flow of traffic.

    Shenzhen Bus Group will send 30 buses to Overseas Chinese Cemetery in Yantian District and 15 buses to Xili Bao’en Fudi Cemetery in Nanshan District. Shenzhen Eastern Bus Group will organize 15 buses for Jitian Cemetery, Buji Subdistrict, Longgang District.

    According to details released by the city’s transport bureau Saturday, bus companies will set up temporary bus stops for routes 67, 227, 316 and 326 at Xili Bao’en Fudi Cemetery. Buses 351, 357, 661 and 812 will make stops at Jitian Cemetery for tomb-sweepers.

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    Traffic bans will be imposed near the cemeteries and two lanes will be designated for temporary parking along the section from Shenzhen Polytechnic to Xili Bao’en Fudi Cemetery on Songbai Road.

    Traffic police will monitor roads leading to the cemeteries and set up 21 inspection stations to check violations such as speeding, overloading, illegal overtaking and drink driving.

    In addition, health authorities will organize medical teams and ambulances near the three cemeteries. Shenzhen No. 2 people’s hospital, Beijing University Shenzhen Hospital, Nanshan People’s Hospital and Longgang Central Hospital will each reserve five beds for emergencies.

    Police advised residents to take buses to cemeteries instead of driving themselves.

    In Xili Bao’en Fudi Cemetery, which has 10,000 tombs, there are only 150 parking spaces and in another cemetery in Xili Subdistrict, there are no designated parking spaces, except for some vacant land that can hold no more than 10 cars.

    The management office at Longshan Cemetery in Longgang District, which has 4,000 tombs and 200 parking spaces, will organize three buses at Donghu Lake, Luohu District, starting from 9 a.m. every day during the holidays.

    Exit-entry quarantine authorities remind inbound tomb sweepers from Hong Kong not to bring piglets, fruit, ducks or chickens, the traditional offerings in tomb sweeping rituals, because it is against the law.