Beijingers started buying fireworks yesterday to celebrate Spring Festival, though sales were not high on the first day.
Sales are expected to pick up as Spring Festival approaches, vendors said, especially because fireworks cannot be set off within the Fifth Ring Road before February 17, the eve of the lunar new year.
Prices of fireworks are lower than last year because the administration has taken steps to ensure speculators do not have free run of the market. Fireworks, however, can cost anything from 0.2 yuan (2.5 cents) a piece to 300 yuan ($38) a set.
This is the second time people will celebrate the festival with fireworks since 1993.
Fireworks were banned in 1994 for safety and environmental reasons, said a spokesman for Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (BSMC), one of the fireworks distributors.
Residents within the Fifth Ring Road will be the first to buy the fireworks from about 625 approved vendors.
Altogether, 2,153 retailers have been granted licenses to sell about 700 kinds of fireworks and firecrackers, cumulatively worth 114 million yuan ($14.6 million). Last year, the number of vendors was 2,100.
The Chinese love bursting firecrackers during Spring Festival because they think it drives away evil spirits and helps overcome bad luck.
On sale this year will be more than three times the amount of firecrackers sold before the ban in 1993.
Beijing Panda Fireworks Manufacturing Co, the other distributor, will join the BSMC this year to ensure unscrupulous traders do not raise the prices because of dearth of supply.
Last year, a few downtown outlets hiked the prices to take advantage of the short supply, making more than 90 percent Beijingers complain against unscrupulous traders, according to a Beijing News survey.
To keep prices under check, only supermarkets with authorized certificates have been granted licenses to sell fireworks this year, sources in Beijing Municipal Office of Fireworks said.
Also, the office has told retailers that all packages should carry an authorized price tag to prevent price speculations.
And to ensure that the fireworks are safe, the products were made to undergo at least four checks before being distributed to retailers. The office is monitoring the transport and storage of the fireworks, too.
All products have to carry anti-fake labels, and buyers are urged to report any discrepancy to a hotline, 12365, or the office website, www.bjtsb.gov.cn.
A recent quality overhaul showed 30 percent of the firecrackers sold in the markets were substandard, Xinhua reported last month. Such products caused injury to 2,642 Beijingers from 1987 to 1993.
Sales are expected to pick up as Spring Festival approaches, vendors said, especially because fireworks cannot be set off within the Fifth Ring Road before February 17, the eve of the lunar new year.
Prices of fireworks are lower than last year because the administration has taken steps to ensure speculators do not have free run of the market. Fireworks, however, can cost anything from 0.2 yuan (2.5 cents) a piece to 300 yuan ($38) a set.
This is the second time people will celebrate the festival with fireworks since 1993.
Fireworks were banned in 1994 for safety and environmental reasons, said a spokesman for Beijing Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (BSMC), one of the fireworks distributors.
Residents within the Fifth Ring Road will be the first to buy the fireworks from about 625 approved vendors.
Altogether, 2,153 retailers have been granted licenses to sell about 700 kinds of fireworks and firecrackers, cumulatively worth 114 million yuan ($14.6 million). Last year, the number of vendors was 2,100.
The Chinese love bursting firecrackers during Spring Festival because they think it drives away evil spirits and helps overcome bad luck.
On sale this year will be more than three times the amount of firecrackers sold before the ban in 1993.
Beijing Panda Fireworks Manufacturing Co, the other distributor, will join the BSMC this year to ensure unscrupulous traders do not raise the prices because of dearth of supply.
Last year, a few downtown outlets hiked the prices to take advantage of the short supply, making more than 90 percent Beijingers complain against unscrupulous traders, according to a Beijing News survey.
To keep prices under check, only supermarkets with authorized certificates have been granted licenses to sell fireworks this year, sources in Beijing Municipal Office of Fireworks said.
Also, the office has told retailers that all packages should carry an authorized price tag to prevent price speculations.
And to ensure that the fireworks are safe, the products were made to undergo at least four checks before being distributed to retailers. The office is monitoring the transport and storage of the fireworks, too.
All products have to carry anti-fake labels, and buyers are urged to report any discrepancy to a hotline, 12365, or the office website, www.bjtsb.gov.cn.
A recent quality overhaul showed 30 percent of the firecrackers sold in the markets were substandard, Xinhua reported last month. Such products caused injury to 2,642 Beijingers from 1987 to 1993.
