Beijing is wiping out mosquitoes, flies, rats and cockroaches around the Tian'anmen square to make sure participants of the 60th National Day celebrations are free from epidemics and bites.

The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out extermination sweeps on August 18, 21, 24 and 28 -- and plans to do it again on September 4, 11 and 25 -- around Tian'anmen Square and adjacent streets, including the Tian'anmen Rostrum and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao, said Zeng Xiaofan, a CDC doctor in charge of the campaigns.

The campaigns, all at night to avoid affecting the public, aim to prevent epidemics and exterminate the four pests, especially rats and mosquitoes.

Rats could eat electric cables and mosquitoes could bite and annoy people gathering in the square on October 1 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of new China, Zeng said.

China will hold a grand gathering at the Tian'anmen Square on October 1 when Chinese President Hu Jintao will give a keynote speech. A military parade and mass pageantry will follow the gathering and pass through the Chang'an Avenue.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2009)