Beijing restricts fireworks sales during Spring Festival

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Good news for early sleepers and bad news for those who usually celebrate the Spring Festival with a bang: Beijing Municipality is reducing sales of firecrackers for the festive season as the city moves more aggressively to tame air pollution.

Fireworks will be sold in 511 designated outlets, down 28.9 percent from last year, an official with the Beijing Municipal Safety Supervision Bureau told Xinhua News Agency.

Sales of fireworks have been banned downtown, and none of the outlets are located within the Third Ring Road, which encircles the center of the city.

A man adds more firecrackers during celebrations for the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year of Monkey in Beijing just before midnight February 7, 2016. /CFP Photo‍

Chinese people traditionally set off firecrackers and light fireworks as part of the Spring Festival celebrations, as they believe that the noise wards off evil spirits and protects them from bad luck.

Sales of fireworks are allowed from January 22 to February 1, according to the city's plan on fireworks sales and storage this year.

The Chinese New Year falls on January 27.

Beijing has recently decided to up its battle against air pollution after successive severe bouts of smog engulfed the city in the past few weeks, with only a handful of days offering respite from the thick haze and gray skies.

On December 16, Beijing activated its red alert, the highest on a four-tier color-coded warning system for severe weather, for the first time this season.

If orange and red alerts are issued for heavy air pollution, fireworks delivery and sales will be suspended during the Spring Festival period, the plan said.

A man walks past fireworks in the street outside an apartment building in Beijing early on February 8, 2016 for the Lunar New Year celebrations which marks the start of the year of the monkey. /CFP Photo

The city is launching an environmental police force to increase supervision and ensure accountability in its 16 districts, as part of its environmental protection plans for 2017.

Some of the measures include cutting coal consumption by 30 percent to less than 7 million tons in 2017, phasing out 300,000 high-polluting vehicles, shutting down 500 manufacturing and polluting factories, and closer cooperation with neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality to fight air pollution.

In 2005, Beijing ended a 13-year ban on fireworks, put in place for safety and environmental reasons.