CRCC ASIA
This past Qingming Festival was busier than ever in Beijing as record numbers of tourists and tomb sweepers caused traffic chaos in the capital.
Tourists took advantage of the three-day holiday to visit Beijing's parks in droves, totaling 700,000 as of Sunday at 3pm. The Summer Palace led the way with 135,000 visitors while Beihai and Yuyuantan followed closely behind.
Also out in droves were Beijing residents visiting graves as part of China's annual tomb sweeping tradition. According to the Beijing Municipal Qingming Operations Department, 674,000 city residents visited the city's 215 cemeteries during this past holiday break, a year-on-year increase of six percent.
Despite having different objectives, the massive numbers of tourists and tomb sweepers combined to cause traffic chaos throughout Beijing.
Qingming Festival participants used 127,000 cars to commute to vicinity cemeteries, five percent more than last year. Beijing's esteemed Babaoshan Cemetery was inundated with 7,600 cars, while the parking lot at Wan'an cemetery was already full by 8am on Tomb Sweeping Day.
The traffic was especially poor for residents hoping to drive out of the city on Sunday. According to the Beijing transport department, there was a 10 percent higher traffic volume over last year.
Mr Wu, an air conditioner installer, said a normal two hour drive took twice as long to make on Sunday. "I first went to the Fourth Ring Road, but that was no good, so I tried the Fifth Ring Road, but that also was severely congested," said Wu. "Only by going way out to the Sixth Ring Road was I finally able to get where I needed to go."
Even though not much could be done to alleviate the traffic congestion, Beijing cemeteries did their best to prepare for tomb sweepers. Besides a limited supply of free buckets and towels, Babaoshan also allowed visitors to post messages to deceased family members on its LED billboard. Referred to as "heaven's mailbox" (shown above), the service is accessible through WeChat where users can find out the exact time of broadcast of their message.
This type of service may become more prevalent as statistics for Qingming Festival continue to increase, meaning that new graves within city limits will be a rarefied resource. Beijing's cemeteries are estimated to reach peak capacitiy within 50 years.
CRCC ASIA
