Starting October 13th and running through to November 6th, Beijing's Haidian District has been easing traffic on roads leading to Fragrant Hills Park every weekend by issuing a limited number of permits to vehicles.

 

Altogether, 6,000 permits will be distributed during all the two-day weekends. Another 1,000 permits will be kept for reserve use. Vehicles without the permit are unable to enter the Fragrant Hills area.

 

Twelve parking lots, with a total of 3591 parking spaces, were prepared for the "holiday rush." Two of these parking lots are reserved for just tour buses, while the remaining ten parking lots can accommodate 2,000 private vehicles, traffic police said.

 

On the busiest days, traffic police stop the flow of vehicles entering the park when 90 per cent of the total capacity of parking lots has been occupied.

 

Some parking lots are located a few kilometers away from the main entrance of the park, so 30 public buses have been deployed to "ferry" self-driven tourists from their parking lot to the main gate.

 

(CRIENGLISH.com October 28, 2006)