Add more to maple index
The old maple index needs to be upgraded to include more information than just maple leaves inspiring the outings of residents in autumn, says an article in Beijing News. The following is an excerpt:
Over the last weekend, a large number of citizens in Beijing flocked to scenic spots with views of reddened maple leaves. On a single day of Saturday, for example, Fragrant Hills Park, a traditional and famous place for watching reddened maple leaves in Beijing, received 80,000 visitors, far exceeding its normal capacity. As authorities forecast, the weekend to come will see another peak of people visiting places with maple leaves.
In Beijing, the autumn season has the best natural views in a year with beautiful maple leaves on mountains, attracting residents to have more outdoor activities than usual. To meet the rising demands of people to visit scenic spots and appreciate maple leaves, "maple index", an index to measure the redness of maple leaves, has thus become a must.
Starting from Oct 11, 2006, the Beijing weather bureau released to the public a set of maple index to measure the redness of maple leaves based on temperature, in a bid to guide residents to choose the best time of watching maple leaves.
But now, people have more needs than before and the urban management has become more people-oriented. Thus, the old set of maple index cannot be only limited to telling residents about the best time of watching maple leaves, but should have more contents.
During the past two weekends, roads leading to major scenic spots with maples were congested with cars and the places suitable for watching maples were crammed with visitors. People still cannot have timely information on the number of visitors in these scenic spots and so, crowding can hardly be avoided. As a result, related government departments such as transport authorities were forced to work overtime to deal with the congested situation.
All of this indicates that we still lack an all-around service mechanism for outings in the outskirts of Beijing. So the maple index should also include other information such as weather, transportation and environmental protection. Moreover, as most people can only visit these scenic spots during the weekends, to attract more people to visit the places during weekdays, the maple index should also tell them about the discounts during weekdays and related service measures.
The maple index should be expanded to include more than maple. With the development of Beijing outskirts, more and more scenic spots have attracted residents. For example, people may also watch birds and hike in the mountain areas in October. They also need services offered by the municipal government.
The government should let people know how to have a happy outing by offering them with public service information and effective transportation measures.
(China Daily 10/28/2008 page8)
