On Wednesday afternoon, police made house calls in Beijing's luxury villa areas to check on illegal dog keeping. They discovered six large, unlicensed dogs.

The city will implement a "one dog" policy for each household in nine major management zones, aimed at fighting rabies which claimed 318 lives nationwide in September.

The nine zones are Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen, Xuanwu, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai, Shijingshan and Yizhuang Economic Development Zone. No large or ferocious dogs will be allowed there.

In the nine designated zones, only pet dogs up to 35 centimeters tall are permitted. Dangerous dogs or large dogs taller than 35cm, such as mastiffs, Dobermans, Saint Bernards and Great Danes, are banned.

The policy says only visually handicapped people or those with serious physical handicaps are allowed to keep guide dogs or service dogs.

Beijing now has more than 550,000 registered dogs, up 20 percent over the previous year.