Ancient city of Xi'an eases ban on fireworks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, December 01, 2003

Ancient city of Xi'an eases ban on fireworks

Xi'an, the ancient capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi province, will ease to some extent its 10-year fireworks ban beginning early next year.

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Xi'an, the ancient capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi province, will ease to some extent its 10-year fireworks ban beginning early next year.

The provincial people's congress has passed an amended regulation on fireworks, dividing the city areas into two categories, fireworks-banned zones and fireworks-restricted zones. Previously, setting off of fireworks had been banned thoroughly in the city.

According to the new regulation, nevertheless, fireworks are not allowed at any time in and around key fire protection regions in the city and areas with dense population density, such as government offices, schools, kindergartens, as well as cinemas, bus and railway stations, gas stations and historical relic protection areas.

In the fireworks-restricted regions, such as the new city area, the Forest of Steles and the Dayan (wild goose) Pagoda site, fireworks can only be set off during the Spring Festival holiday season for the lunar new year, which starts from Jan. 22 next year.

Setting off of fireworks in China is a traditional ritual for dispelling and scaring away evils or misfortune in the holidays. However, in recent years firecrackers have been regarded far and wide as environmentally unfriendly and detrimental, as people easily get hurt and fire easily spreads when setting them off.

More than 100 cities around China, especially large ones, have banned fireworks since the 1990s for environmental and safety reasons. But some cities, such as Shenyang in northeastern Liaoning province, and Anyang and Nanyang in central China's Henan province, have lifted the ban because of opposition from local residents.

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