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Millions flock to pay respects to ancestors
By Emma Dong |
March 30, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NEARLY 2 million locals went to graveyards around the city to pay homage to their ancestors over the weekend, marking the first tomb-sweeping rush before Qingming Festival next weekend.
Graveyards at Baoshan, Jiading, Fengxian and Qingpu districts welcomed their first flock of visitors as early as about 6:30am on Saturday. Traffic volume on major expressways to these graveyards shot up.
Forty-five minutes later, hundreds of vehicles started to clog the Jiangqiao toll gate for the expressway connecting Shanghai and Nanjing, capital of neighboring Jiangsu Province.
Shanghai police helicopters patrolled major roads connecting graveyards at Baoshan, Jiading, Fengxian and Qingpu districts during morning peak hours and sent real-time traffic information to police on the ground, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said.
By 9:15am on the Shanghai--Nanjing Expressway on Saturday, queues stretched back 2 kilometers. The traffic soon started flowing on this route, but most major expressways to graveyards experienced congestion until about 6pm. Traffic volume of the Shanghai-Jiading Expressway was up 45 percent yesterday.
About 1.92 million locals went to cemeteries over the weekend, one week ahead of the traditional tomb-sweeping day, about 14 percent more than the same period last year, the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau said.
Residents traditionally visit the tombs of their relatives to pay tribute to the dead around April 4.
The city will face stiffer traffic pressure this Saturday, the festival day itself, when about 230,000 cars and 2.4 million people are expected to be on the move, according to the civil affairs authority.
"If it usually take a family one and a half hours to travel from their home to our cemetery, they will need three hours this Saturday," said Ni Jianguo, an official with the Binhaiguyuan Cemetery in Fengxian District. "Travel time usually doubles."
Ni said their passenger and vehicle volume is expected to almost triple on April 4 compared to that of yesterday.
Graveyards at Baoshan, Jiading, Fengxian and Qingpu districts welcomed their first flock of visitors as early as about 6:30am on Saturday. Traffic volume on major expressways to these graveyards shot up.
Forty-five minutes later, hundreds of vehicles started to clog the Jiangqiao toll gate for the expressway connecting Shanghai and Nanjing, capital of neighboring Jiangsu Province.
Shanghai police helicopters patrolled major roads connecting graveyards at Baoshan, Jiading, Fengxian and Qingpu districts during morning peak hours and sent real-time traffic information to police on the ground, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau said.
By 9:15am on the Shanghai--Nanjing Expressway on Saturday, queues stretched back 2 kilometers. The traffic soon started flowing on this route, but most major expressways to graveyards experienced congestion until about 6pm. Traffic volume of the Shanghai-Jiading Expressway was up 45 percent yesterday.
About 1.92 million locals went to cemeteries over the weekend, one week ahead of the traditional tomb-sweeping day, about 14 percent more than the same period last year, the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau said.
Residents traditionally visit the tombs of their relatives to pay tribute to the dead around April 4.
The city will face stiffer traffic pressure this Saturday, the festival day itself, when about 230,000 cars and 2.4 million people are expected to be on the move, according to the civil affairs authority.
"If it usually take a family one and a half hours to travel from their home to our cemetery, they will need three hours this Saturday," said Ni Jianguo, an official with the Binhaiguyuan Cemetery in Fengxian District. "Travel time usually doubles."
Ni said their passenger and vehicle volume is expected to almost triple on April 4 compared to that of yesterday.
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