Visitors tour the city's Yuyuan Garden on February 5.(Zhang Suoqing)
Police say they are prepared to deal with the large crowds of worshippers expected to descend on Shanghai God Temple during the coming Spring Festival.
The famous Taoist temple in Huangpu District's Yuyuan Garden is usually visited by a large number of people on Chinese New Year's Eve. Worshippers wait to burn incense sticks after midnight to help ensure good fortune in the next year, and also on the eve of the fifth day of the new year, which is the birthday of the God of Wealth.
Police said no more than 3,000 visitors will be allowed inside the temple at the same time, and those gathering outside may be contained by fences.
"If it's too crowded inside the temple, we will make visitors move clockwise or anti-clockwise and arrange for them to exit through emergency doors," said Dong Dehai, a spokesperson for Huangpu police.
Dong said officers will be on duty at the temple from 9pm on both evenings, working in cooperation with security guards and volunteers, and firefighters will be on standby.
Shanghai police announced that it would step up security at every large temple in the city during the festival. Meanwhile, police said they will use Wi-Fi detectors and crowd-counting monitors — first tested during the National Day holiday in October last year — to help them react quickly when large crowds begin to form in popular spots such as Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall, Yuyuan Garden and the Bund.
"Usually tourist spots in Shanghai are not as crowded during the Spring Festival as during National Day or the New Year holiday, but there have been more tourists in Shanghai during this period in recent years," Dong said.
The Shanghai government said it will release real-time information about visitor numbers at over 70 major tourist attractions in the city via WeChat public accounts of Shanghai Fabu and Leyou Shanghai.
