Police denied Spring Festival break

WEINAN, Shaanxi: Several packets of instant noodles are piled up on officer Li Wei's desk at the city's Sanzhang police station. A neatly-folded silk banner, which the local telecom company gave his staff as a token of thanks for their service, lies on a vacant chair in one corner.

Li didn't even have time to hang up the banner during the Spring Festival, an exceptionally busy time for police in Weinan, a major exporter of labor in the country, with almost half a million migrant workers returning home to spend the holidays with their families.

All six police officers at the Sanzhang police station have been on their toes since the beginning of the lunar New Year.