Published: 8:37PM Friday December 21, 2007
Source: Reuters
A Chinese city has beaten the Grinch at his own game, banning
Christmas trees from shopping malls, restaurants and other public
places because they pose a fire hazard, a newspaper reported.
Chen Ying, deputy mayor of Zhuhai, a city of 1.3 million people in
southern China, said restaurants, malls, grocery stores and other
entertainment venues had to remove trees and other "flammable
decorations" immediately.
"Those that fail to rectify the situation will be subject to legal
measures like suspension or closure," the Southern Metropolis Daily
quoted Chen on its website (
www.nddaily.com) as saying on
Wednesday.
The crackdown on Christmas trees was part of a three-month campaign
to boost fire-prevention standards that started this week in
Zhuhai, directly across from the Chinese gambling haven of
Macau.
The Zhuhai ban came the same day that President Hu Jintao "reached
out" to religious believers in China where commercial Christmas
trappings have become increasingly ostentatious in recent
years.
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