It was already late afternoon, but Liu Baoyu, director of the Outpatient Department at the Chaoyang Hospital, saw no end to his first day back to work, despite being scheduled to finish in one hour.

"There are more patients coming," said Liu.

Liu's statistics indicate the hospital saw 2,500 patients that day, the highest number for the first eight days of the Year of the Goat, which started on February 1.

The busiest doctors at the hospital are those in orthopaedics, stomatology and respiratory departments.

And most of those waiting in the hospital's emergency room were the elderly, suffering from chronic asthma, bronchitis, cardiovascular diseases or cerebrovascular diseases.

"This must have a lot to do with the disturbance to their (the elderly) living rhythm during the festival," said Liu.

According to Liu, getting together with children during the festival has imposed too much activity on the elderly, such as chatting, traveling and playing games.

Disruptions to regular lifestyles during Spring Festival, an integral family gathering time for Chinese, has affected more elderly than during other holidays, said Tian, a leading official of the local 999 emergency center.

The center rushed nearly 30 elderly people suffering from unexpected cardiovascular or cerebrovascular diseases to hospitals Monday.

The Beijing Hospital of Chinese Medicine also reported a similar situation, receiving a higher number of patients Monday than the previous few days combined.

Most of those patients had caught a cold, got a fever or suffered from indigestion disorders, said Liu Hongxu, head of the hospital's emergency department.

"Many locals spent Spring Festival in southern China, where a number of them suffered from a strenuous lifestyle change and environment change," said Liu.

"Moreover, lots of them cannot quickly adapt back to the freezing winds of Beijing. They have become accustomed to the scorching sunshine of southern China."

Also feeling the after-effects of the festival were various insurance companies in Beijing, who received mounting compensation claims for car damages.

The number of such requirements received by the China Pacific Property Insurance Company Beijing Branch jumped to 800 Monday from the daily average of 200 to 300 in the previous seven days.

A company source said many of the damages claims took place when people were driving back from other Chinese regions after the happy yet exhausting holidays.

"Most of the reported cases are minor, caused mainly by driver fatigue or by being overly-relaxed," said the official.

(China Daily February 10, 2003)