As the famous Qiantang River tide will come on Friday, the local government has taken to erecting many safety notices around viewing stations in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.

According to the Zhejiang-based newspaper Today Morning Express, the safety notices were formally released by Cai Qi, Mayor of Hangzhou on September 16.

Local government staff members install safety notices at a tide viewing site in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province on Monday, September 24.

The notices have been placed at many tide viewing sites in order to alert visitors that the rushing tide can be dangerous if people are caught unawares. It's best to listen to the advice of local police officers, who are there to ensure people's safety.

Qiantang River is the biggest in Zhejiang Province, running from the west to Hangzhou Bay in the east. The extraordinary surging tide of Qiantang River is a world-renowned natural wonder caused by the gravitational pull of the atmosphere. The centrifugal force produced by the rotation of the earth and by the peculiar bottleneck shape of Hangzhou Bay makes it easy for the tide to come in, but difficult for it to ebb.

The soaring tide of Qiantang River is such a marvelous spectacle that only the Amazon River's surging tide rivals it! Annually, millions of people from both home and abroad flock there to watch the magnificent tide on the eighteenth day of the eighth lunar month (close to Mid-Autumn day).

(CRI September 26, 2007)