The amount of garbage collected at Tian'anmen Square during this year's weeklong National Day Holiday was nearly half the amount collected during last year's holiday, a sign that sanitation awareness is improving, according to a Beijing sanitation company.

The total amount of garbage collected at the square between Sunday and Friday dropped by 58 percent year-on-year to 38 metric tons, said Zhang Zhiqiang, chief of the operations department of the Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group Co., Ltd.

Zhang said tourists drank more water this year, as temperatures were higher than usual.

"Many of them took their empty bottles away," he said.

Zhang said that sidewalk peddlers were strictly barred from selling their wares at the square this year, which also helped to reduce the amount of litter.

The National Day Holiday saw more than 12 million tourists visiting Beijing's parks and scenic areas, up 28 percent year-on-year, according to the city's landscape and forestry bureau.

"More than 120 sanitation workers stayed on duty around the clock, ensuring that the square stayed clean despite having so many visitors," Zhang said.

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