The tourist bureau of Pingyao county, in Shanxi province, has come up with a greater number of ways to cope with the possible surge in tourists visiting the old city during the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, June 10 to 12.

The bureau will be working round-the-clock to deal with any problems or incidents that may occur, by using an emergency system that calls for tourist agencies in the old city to strengthen their supervision and eliminate safety hazards to prevent traffic jams or other accidents involving tourists. In addition, tourist sites are being asked to make an estimate of the number of tourists they expect and come up with a plan to divide up crowds and deal with emergencies.

During the May Day holiday, this year, April 29 to May 1, Pingyao had a total of 52,789 Chinese and foreign tourists, for a year-on-year rise of 19.4 percent, however, ticket sales dipped 5.5 percent year-on-year, to around 5 million yuan ($815,000).

Edited by Lin Hong and Roger Bradshaw