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Beijing launches another plan to get rid of beggars

Beijing police have launched a campaign to clear the city's streets of beggars to create a "civilized and sound" environment for the August Olympic Games, state media reported yesterday.

Officers will patrol the city 24 hours a day, looking not just for beggars, but also peddlers, pamphlet distributors and tricycle taxi drivers who ply their trades without licenses, the Beijing Morning Post reported.

"They'll have nowhere to hide," the paper said after the launch of the campaign at a ceremony on Wednesday in front of the city's military museum.

Police will target Chang'an Avenue, the city's main boulevard, as well as six key districts, meting out punishments, including detention, depending on the severity of the violations, it reported.

"The campaign is aimed at uprooting illegal activities that tarnish the city's image and affect the social order and to build up a `harmonious, civilized and sound' urban environment for the Olympic Games," Xinhua news agency quoted a senior police official as saying.

It is not the first time Beijing authorities have vowed to rid the city of its beggars ahead of the city's hosting of the Olympics, an event China is using to showcase its economic rise of the past three decades.

Authorities made a similar pledge in March last year, with little apparent effect, as beggars are still a fixture of the Beijing cityscape.
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