Holiday park visitors surge to 2.4 million

About 2.4 million people visited Beijing's public parks during the New Year holidays, a 40 percent increase compared to the amount of visitors last year, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Historical or cultural parks, such as Taoranting Park in Xicheng district and Yuyuantan Park in Haidian district, were most favored, with 1.3 million visitors.

After the stampede at the Bund in Shanghai on New Year's Eve, which killed 36 people and injured 49, Beijing authorities took measures to enhance public safety management during the holidays, including adding more ticket windows in populated parks, more inspectors and inspection patrols and more directional signs. Some parks created one-way only passages to better direct the flow of visitors.