After a 15-year ban on the sale of fireworks in Beijing, Kang Guoliang, 51, was able to start his old trade again yesterday. As a salesman in Xinhui store in Dongcheng District, he is happy about the increasing number of buying fireworks wrapped in red paper -- a color standing for happiness and good luck. "Fireworks are available for the first time in town for more than a decade," Kang said happily."People will buy them." The store has 300 boxes of fireworks piled up and is open 24 hours at the moment.Residents are buying the fireworks and firecrackers for the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on February 18. Citywide, 2,116 registered stores and retailers, 585 in the centre and 1,600 on the outskirts are trading fireworks in the Chinese capital.Sales of fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road started yesterday and will last until March 4, Xinhua reported.Among the stores, 117 stores are permitted to operate 24 hours.About 600,000 boxes of firecrackers worth more than 100 million yuan have been carried to registered stores. The Chinese capital began a ban in 1993 to reduce fireworks-related deaths and fires during the holiday season.Last September the ban was removed in response to residents' fondness for fireworks when celebrating Spring Festival. According to new rules, Beijing residents are allowed to set off fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road all day on Lunar New Year's Eve and Lunar New Year's day, from 7 a.m.to midnight every day from February 19 to March 4. "Spring Festival without fireworks is not Spring Festival," said Sheng Hefei, who was buying fireworks in the store."It was fun to light the firecrackers when I was little," he said."The sound and view of fireworks make a real holiday." However, not all residents welcome the return of firecrackers because of injuries, pollution and noise."My child is scared of the sudden sound of firecrackers, and it is annoying to hear it all night long," complained Lu Jun, a local resident. (China Daily02/11/2008) What is the writer's attitude towards the sales of fireworks in Beijing?
Negative Not mentioned Positive Satisfactory