While most Beijingers were tucked up in bed, stuffed on festive food and still buzzing from the annual release of New Year’s Eve fireworks, 50,000 sanitation workers took to the city’s streets in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Their task was to clear the 366 tons of firecracker debris that the Beijing Municipal Commission of City Management estimated was left behind. /CFP Photo

The amount of firework debris left on Beijing’s streets was down 11 percent from last year, according to data from the Municipal Commission of City Management cited by Xinhua News Agency. /CFP Photo

The cleaners had an easier job than in previous years after the public set off far fewer fireworks, encouraged by the government and increasingly conscious of the smog such explosions cause. /CFP Photo

Fireworks are prohibited within the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing apart from during the Spring Festival, the holiday for Chinese New Year. Fireworks are banned everywhere in the city whenever the government issues an orange or red alert for air pollution. /CFP Photo