Rambling bicycles and colorful kitesinstead of overloaded trains and planes hurrying to popular scenicspots and relaxing family banquets instead of overcrowded shoppingmalls.

Chinese citizens eschewed the traditional holiday rush for a relaxed May Day, the first day of a five-day holiday blighted by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

In a bid to prevent the spread of the epidemic, the usual seven-day holiday was cut to five days and many Chinese decided to stay home or stroll around their communities.

A resident in the Chongwen District of the Chinese capital of Beijing said he and his cousin in Haikou, capital of China's southeast island province, chose the same way to spend the holiday:"We stayed home, reading, surfing on the internet, walked around with family members and cooked delicious meals to celebrate the holiday."

Miss Wang, who works for a company in Beijing's hi-tech Zhongguancun area, spent the whole day in Yuanmingyuan Park enjoying the fresh air. "We used to bargain and do some window-shopping in the department stores in the holidays," Wang said, "but I think that relaxing with nature is also fun."

"People's common sense and their trust give me confidence we can win the war against the SARS epidemic," said acting Beijing Mayor Wang Qishan.

He said the government would do its utmost to control the disease in the seriously affected municipality as soon as possible.

Many Chinese people living in other cities also enjoyed the holiday locally.

Mr. Xiang, a staff member of a travel agency in Suzhou, a scenic city in east China, devoted the day to playing an Internet web game.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, prices of major farm products in large-scale wholesale markets over north China were stable and even decreased a little, good news for Mrs. Zhang in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi province.

"We will not travel during this holiday so I don't need to buy more food for the family," Zhang said, surprised by the variety and lower prices in the market.

But many people have to work over the holiday.

Drivers and conductors running nearly 20,000 buses in Beijing and medical workers fighting SARS in the city will get no holiday this year.

"Take care and I'm waiting for you to come back home," said Wu You to her father, a busy doctor in the You'an Hospital, during aninterview.

She hoped the television would carry her best wishes, and thoseof all Chinese people, to health-care workers over the country.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2003)