More than 10,000 people participated in a march from the Summer Palace, which indicates China's suffering in the Opium War 165 years ago, to the China Millennium Altar symbolizing the country's 5,000-year-old civilization, to promote public awareness against drugs.

The 12-kilometer and two-hour march is one of the activities across the country to commemorate the UN-sponsored International Anti-Drug Day on Sunday.
   
Beijing opened two hot lines to provide information on drug rehabilitation through labor on Sunday. Whoever wants to consult on drug addiction treatment through labor could dial 1600225 or 010-60279522 for help, according to the Beijing Reeducation Through Labor Administration under the Beijing Municipal Prison Administration.
   
With strengthened efforts to clamp down on drugs, Beijing seized more than 30 kilograms of drugs in about 350 cases in the January-May period this year, and about 73 kilograms of drugs in about 1,800 cases in 2004, said Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
   
Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality set on fire more than 500 kilograms of seized illicit drugs on Sunday, including heroin, opium, stimulant pills and ice. 
  
About 500 representatives from all walks of life participated in the ceremony and signed on a hundred-meter scroll to show their determination against drug abuse and trafficking.
   
Chongqing municipal police cracked 7,398 drug cases, involving 214 kilograms of drugs and 5,788 offenders in the past year. Chongqing, China's youngest municipality, has been a busy traffic hub along the Yangtze River, and thus frequently used by drug traffickers.
   
Southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region burnt about 500 kilograms of seized illicit drugs Sunday in the regional capital Lhasa.
   
The drugs set ablaze include 67 kilograms of heroin, 320 kilograms of poppy shell and seed, and 133 kilograms of narcotics distilled from hemp.
   
The autonomous region has strengthened various measures to fight against drug crimes, and achieved remarkable progress, but the autonomous region still faces a severe situation since it is wedged between the "Golden Triangle" of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, and the "Golden Crescent" of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, said Lei Jinxiang, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Public Security Department.
   
Various activities were also held in Yunnan Province, Guangdong Province and many other areas to improve public awareness to fight against drug abuse and trafficking.

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2005)