BEIJING is banning fireworks across the Chinese capital for more than three months this summer, as part of a series of new regulations designed to ensure strict security during the Olympic Games.
Dealers will be forced to suspend sales and lock existing stocks in specially designated warehouses from 1 July to 8 October, according to an order posted on the website of the Beijing Administration of Work Safety.
The rule tightens regulation
s that ban fireworks in the city centre for most of the year, to include all of Beijing's sprawling suburbs.
For a civilisation credited with inventing gunpowder and where fireworks remain ubiquitous, the new rule seems harsh. Massive barrages and fireworks displays are commonly used by people in Chinese to celebrate weddings, the lunar new year and other festive occasions.
It was not known how the ban would affect the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, which have been planned in secret. The event runs from 8-24 August.
The order did not elaborate on the purpose of the ban, besides saying it was "to ensure safety around the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games".
But it falls in line with other stringent arrangements apparently designed to ward off threats of terrorist attack, catastrophic accidents or public disorder.
Additional measures contained in the administration's announcement include 24-hour guards posted at all petrol stations located within 300 metres of Olympic venues, new restrictions on the use of toxic chemicals, and an outright ban on the use of the common disinfectant liquid chlorine.
Beijing residents have taken the rules in their stride; they are long-used to being told what to do by the regime.
The full article contains 283 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
