The General Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, has urged relevant departments to get fully prepared to cope with possible inconveniences and bad impact caused by a full solar eclipse which is forecasted to occur on Wednesday.

In a statement issued late Saturday night, the General Office called on departments of transport, railways and civil aviation, to make full preparations to guarantee smooth and safe transportation and passenger flow. It also urged meteorological departments to intensify weather monitoring and issue timely weather report, especially forecast of disaster weather.

Science departments should widely spread the scientific explanation of the eclipse among the general public via media to eliminate possible panic and superstition about the phenomenon, the statement said.

Local governments in the regions where eclipse observers will gather should make appropriate arrangements and take proper measures to prevent safety accidents, the statement said.

The coming total solar eclipse will be the longest that can be observed in China between 1814 and 2309. An area of 250 km wide and 10,000 km long, where people can observe the total eclipse, covers the populous Yangtze River valley including several big cities.

In this area, people can observe four to six minutes of total eclipse, said Cheng Zhou, astronomer with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Purple Mountain Observatory based in Nanjing of eastern Jiangsu Province.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2009)