Why are the sanitation workers at the three major temple fairs in Beijing cleaning four to five thousand bamboo sticks of meat skewers a day?

With seven days of fun during the Chinese New Year, the temple fair is the most popular place during the Spring Festival in Beijing, allowing the general public to taste all kinds of delicacies from all over the world. However, the huge amount of garbage left behind after such a feast also keeps sanitation workers busy. A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily visited the three major temple fairs of Ditan, Longtan and Changdian yesterday and found that there were more tourists but less garbage on the ground. This was all thanks to the unknown sanitation workers who bent down thousands of times and quickly cleaned up without stopping. "We have to scan at least 4,000-5,000 bamboo skewers for mutton skewers a day." said a sanitation worker at the Changdian temple fair.

There are 30 booths in the three food areas of Ditan Park. They not only have noodle tea, hot and sour noodles, mutton soup and other soupy snacks, but also a variety of meat skewers and grilled meats. Squid has always been the "hardest hit area" of garbage. This year, Ditan Park has placed 69 plastic trash cans in three areas. There are also 100 temporary trash cans set up on iron frames on the surrounding green space. Sanitation workers are on duty nearby, and the trash cans are cleaned at least every quarter of an hour. "Many of them are bamboo skewers for big meat skewers, or small disposable bowls filled with soup and water. You can't wait until the trash can is full before cleaning it. You have to clean it when the bucket is three-quarters or even only one-half full. "Liu Yang, the person in charge of the sanitation of Ditan Park, told the Beiqing Daily reporter that there are 120 sanitation workers in Ditan Park responsible for cleaning, and the young and middle-aged labor force has been allocated to the food area, and temporary sanitation has been set up in the green space where garbage is concentrated. "Garbage recycling station" and wait for the sanitation truck to take it away in the evening.

“At least four to five thousand bamboo skewers of mutton skewers must be swept away every day.” In the food area of ??the Changdian Temple Fair, you can see a sanitation worker sweeping every few stalls with a dustpan. , the cleaning efficiency is almost as good as throwing the garbage out one second, and they quickly sweep it into the trash can the next second. Among them, the bamboo sticks of meat skewers are the most abundant waste in temple fairs.

This year, the number of trash cans in the food area of ??the Changdian Temple Fair has increased dramatically. There is a trash can almost every two steps away. Two sanitation workers standing next to a row of trash cans said that unlike previous years, this year's temple fair requires strict garbage classification. The two of them stood next to the trash can with sorting clips, and they sorted the items as customers threw them. In addition, large banners with slogans of “Waste Reduction and Reclassification” can be seen everywhere in the food area of ??this year’s Changdian Temple Fair.

Despite its popularity, Beijing Youth Daily reporter noticed that the environment of Longtan Temple Fair is clean and tidy. A sanitation worker told a reporter from Beiqing Daily that he cleans about 100 barrels of garbage on average every day. "There were more tourists on the first day of the new year, and the general secretary cleaned up 100 barrels. On the second day of the year, there were slightly fewer tourists, but there were still more than 70 barrels, which is an average of 100 barrels a day." The sanitation worker said that they opened the temple fair at 7 a.m. Work has started before 5 p.m., and after closing at 5 p.m., we have to clean up and complete the transportation, and we can't get off work until almost 6 p.m. "In previous years, there were more people littering, and we spent most of our energy cleaning the roads. But things have gotten better these past few years. There are fewer and fewer tourists littering, and our work can be easier."

Temporary sanitation worker: "The temple fair is over, I want to buy an airplane toy for my grandson."

"It's much easier to be a sanitation worker here than to work at home. I can also take this opportunity to go shopping." Let’s go to Beijing and buy an airplane toy for my grandson.” Aunt Gai Xiqin from Pingshan County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, followed her fellow villagers to work at the Longtan Temple Fair this year and became a temporary sanitation worker.

In Pingshan County, where Xibaipo is located, folks from the old district come to the Longtan Temple Fair to work as sanitation workers. There is a temple fair almost every year, and some folks even come to the temple fair for five or six consecutive years to work. The day before New Year's Eve, Aunt Gai and about 60 fellow villagers from the same county boarded a long-distance bus and arrived in Beijing. On New Year's Eve, Aunt Gai and two other fellow villagers were assigned to guard the 500-meter road near Qinglong Bridge. It was the first time she was not at home to celebrate the New Year. Aunt Gai was a little sad, "The team leader asked me to bring some old clothes, and I didn't have time to have a New Year's Eve dinner with my family. But I also ate dumplings in Beijing, and we will have a reunion dinner when we go home on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year." Let’s eat.”

Yesterday was the last day of the temple fair. Aunt Gai held garbage tongs in one hand and a black plastic bag in the other, facing the “surging” crowd in front of her. After a while, the garbage bags were full. She quickly collected the garbage bags and sent them to the garbage collection place on the green space. She went back and forth all morning and accumulated thirty or forty garbage bags. Speaking of the labor intensity from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Aunt Gai thinks it is lower than working as a temporary worker on the construction site on weekdays.

"This experience is an eye-opener. Some of the 70 or 80-year-olds in the village have never even seen a car. This time I can earn 600 to 700 yuan in a few days of hard work. When the temple fair is over, my fellow villagers and I will We made an appointment to go shopping in Tiananmen Square and buy an airplane toy for my eldest grandson.”