The number of blood donators in Beijing has doubled during the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center said.

Beijing has collected 2,915 bags of blood, 200 cc each, by volunteers from Feb. 17 to 19, doubling the amount on ordinary days, according to officials with the center.

The Spring Festival is the most important festival in China and falls on Feb. 18 this year.

Some tourists and students chose to donate blood to celebrate the festival in a special way, said a doctor surnamed Bai from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital who works on a blood collection van.

Bai and his colleagues in Wangfujing said they were much busier during the Spring Festival and received nearly 50 donators every day.

However, nearly half of the people who had wanted to donate blood at Bai's van were refused for their high level of blood fat or transaminase, a result of holiday engorgement, according to Bai.

The amount of blood donated by volunteers has been on the rapid rise in Beijing in recent years, according to statistics of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau. Beijing received 64 million cc of blood donated by volunteers in 2005 compared with 2.8 million cc in 2000.

The Beijing Red Cross Blood Center, established in 1957, is the main blood center in the Chinese capital, supplying two thirds of the city's clinical demand.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2007)