China embraces National Day holiday

Tourists visit the Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, Oct 1, 2015, the first day of the National Day holidays. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - The iconic Tian'anmen Square in central Beijing is usually filled with flowers, pot plants and topiary, but on Thursday there were some new installations: hundreds of toilets.

For tourists needing to answer a call of nature, there are now 445 portable toilets in eight locations in the square, as well as 132 assistants to point visitors in the right direction.

"We expect a huge number of tourists during Golden Week, so we have brought in these extra toilets," said Zhang Zhiqiang from the Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group.

The week-long National Day holiday began on Thursday. More than 532 million domestic trips are expected to be made from Oct 1 to 7, according to the China Tourism Academy. Therefore, a variety of measures are being rolled out to ensure a safe, happy vacation for China's tourists.

In the economic hub of Shanghai, for example, the local government has launched an app on WeChat, the messaging service, which allows visitors to check tourist flow during their visits.

The app provides suggestions for those wanting to go to the city's top tourist destinations, such as opening times, how busy it is and their capacity.

Police have been stationed along the Bund, where a deadly stampede killed 36 on Dec 31, according to the Beijing Evening News.