Beijing to fight spitting and littering

Beijing has vowed to eradicate five boorish behaviors among its citizens this year, including spitting and littering on the street.

For the citizens' convenience, Beijing will set up trash boxes every 100 meters in the city's major streets and other public areas and provide handy sanitary bags for people to spit into on buses, taxis and other public facilities.

Most Beijingers said hawking phlegm and throwing wastes onto the pavement were among the five most disgusting habits in a survey among 10,000 citizens last November, according to officials with Beijing office for the promotion of social ethics.

It was also considered rude for pedestrians to run about the road amid heavy traffic, for passengers to create a rowdy scrum while getting on buses and for pet owners to allow their animals to relieve themselves on the streets, the officials said at a meeting on the capital's ethic building Monday.

The Beijing municipal government will work to eradicate these bad behaviors this year, they said.

In a latest move to maintain public hygiene, Beijing residents have been told to build toilets for pet dogs in their communities, using waste paperboards or plastics.

The local government has also urged the municipal legislature to empower heavier penalties on those who disrupt public hygiene or order.

This year, Beijing also plans to amend and detail its code of behaviors for the citizens, a set of regulations promulgated 10 years ago, Xinhua reports. V.Y.