Lantern Festival Facing Cancellation

The annual lantern festival at Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden is now facing speculations of cancellation after the Bund tragedy on New Year's Eve, Shanghai Daily reported.

Since the tragedy, which caused the loss of at least 36 lives and injuries to at least 49 others, many big events have already been cancelled.

Following the tragedy, security inspections are being done in major event centers such as the Yuyuan Garden. Every day, around 60,000 visitors go to the Spring Festival, which is now on its 15th year at Yuyuan Garden.

Xu Yihua of the Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart Co. Ltd. and operator of Yuyuan said that the historic area will focus on handling greater visitor numbers in the future.

The popular Zigzag Bridge which was built 400 years ago will have two guards deployed at each end to maintain security, and the number of guards will rise to six during significant holidays, while 150 volunteers will be ready for duty covering the whole Yuyuan Garden area.

The bridge will allow people to travel in one direction only when the number of visitors in the area reaches 20,000, and when it goes beyond 30,000, a one-way system will be introduced throughout the business and tourist area, said Xu.

The bridge will be closed if numbers increase to 40,000, and people will be prohibited to enter into the Yuyuan Garden area if visitor flow reaches 50,000, Xu added.

To intensify the supervision of visitors coming to the area, more than 300 cameras outdoors and 400 indoors were installed.

In line with the intensified security, inspections were made by city officials yesterday. Party Chief Han Zheng and Mayor Yang Xiong visited several establishments such as shopping centers, transit lines, health facilities and schools.

Han inspected the safety within fire and security control at the Qufu Road Metro station, an intersection for Lines 8 and 12.

At the Qufu Road Metro station, an interchange for Lines 8 and 12, Han examined fire control measures and security checks. He said that all staff should hold frequent drills to enhance their ability to deal with emergencies.

Shenergy Group's gas distribution center was visited by the mayor and raised concerns regarding water, electricity and gas supplies as the city's supports.

Yang reportedly told the workers: "You should never relax when you are familiar with your work."

At the Global Harbor shopping mall, the mayor inspected its fire control center and the facilities of its firefighting team.

"Safety related work is extremely important at densely populated places like shopping malls," the mayor reminded them, proposing that the management company hire a dedicated safety official, assign more staff and hold more safety exercises.