Long holiday scenic area environmental maintenance results shine, management and guidance prove effective

For many years, during holidays, the problem of littering has been a “difficult problem” facing scenic area managers. During this year's National Day holiday, many places took active action, advocating volunteer service, guiding tourists to participate, and strengthening management guarantees, achieving good results in environmental protection and civilized tourism. Many scenic area managers exclaimed——during this Golden Week, the phenomenon of littering was much less common.

Volunteer service becomes a scenic sight

At 6:10 a.m. on October 1, Tiananmen Square. Amid the cheers of about 110,000 onlookers, the five-star red flag fluttered in the wind to the majestic national anthem. Shortly after the flag-raising ceremony ended, the “Zero Waste Plan” team made up of nearly 30 students from the International Department of Beijing No. 35 High School arrived at Tiananmen Square and began their “zero waste” journey.

“The square is generally quite clean overall, but there is also some scattered litter.” Team volunteer Hou Yuchen told reporters, “Many tourists who come to the square buy stickers to put on their faces, and sometimes they accidentally drop them and they stick to the ground, making them harder to peel off.” Hou Yuchen said this while using his hands to peel stickers off the ground. Thanks to the volunteers' efforts, after dawn, almost no litter could be seen on the ground of the square.

This “Zero Waste Plan” activity was hosted by the Beijing Charity Volunteers Federation, with students from multiple schools participating jointly. During the National Day long holiday, they were divided into 14 groups to maintain environmental sanitation in and around Tiananmen Square throughout the day, while advocating that all citizens and tourists visiting Beijing start with themselves to make waste “zero.”

Tourists and citizens participate together

During the National Day holiday, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, launched the “I Participate in Civilization, Satisfaction in Guiyang” ecological civilization volunteer service series activities in seven major parks in the city, carrying out a garbage-for-gifts action to guide tourists and citizens to jointly participate in waste cleanup and care for the park environment.

In Qianling Mountain Park, tourists who carry out used food packaging bags, mineral water bottles, tissues and other garbage from the park can exchange them for a bottle of mineral water or a pen. Volunteer Wang Fang said, “A pen” or “a bottle of water” may be small, but it awakens and strengthens people's awareness of civilization.

“The small gifts obtained by collecting garbage in the park gave many children encouragement and a sense of achievement.” Wang Fang said that some children specially asked their parents to take photos in front of the volunteer service desk to commemorate the moment. On October 2, Guangdong tourist Li Yan deliberately had her child carry a bag of garbage to the publicity point to exchange for a phone grip. After the activity was held, the situation of tourists littering in Qianling Mountain Park improved, and sunflower seed shells, drink cups and other items by the lake, in the woods and on the roads decreased significantly.

Management and guidance take effect

A clean and beautiful scenic area cannot be achieved without management departments taking multiple measures simultaneously. In Hangzhou, there is a trash can every 50 meters in Qianjiang New City, and in front of the Hangzhou Grand Theatre, where tourists are concentrated, more than 20 large trash cans were temporarily placed. Garbage removal and transport are “assigned to fixed people, fixed times and fixed locations,” with an average of more than 360 cleaning staff and more than 70 vehicles dispatched daily. In Guiyang, the management office of Aha Lake National Wetland Park organizes more than 10 administrative staff, more than 100 security, cleaning and landscaping workers, and some student volunteers every day to set up publicity points at the park entrance and the park tourist service center, guiding the broad masses of tourists to participate in volunteer activities and travel in a civilized manner.

Advocacy promoted the improvement of tourists' quality. This year, the “Smoke-Free West Lake” volunteer activity held by Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has entered its fourth season. “The scenic area was packed with people, and I thought I would quickly find smokers, but who knew that after walking for 10 minutes I still had not found any.” Volunteer Jiang Wei said that after continuous searching and centralized statistics, “the number was again much lower than last year.”

In Beijing, well-known scenic areas such as the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Beijing Zoo, Beihai Park and Fragrant Hills focused during the National Day holiday on strengthening garden sanitation and landscape environment maintenance, ensuring uninterrupted cleaning on major tour routes, with garbage removed daily and no sanitary blind spots; adding 17 temporary toilets and increasing cleaning frequency to ensure sufficient supply of toilet paper, hand sanitizer and other items; and carrying out publicity to guide tourists to visit the parks in a civilized manner. “Although uncivilized tourist behavior still occurs from time to time, civilized travel has become everyone's consensus.” said the person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development.