National Day visitors to Tian'anmen Square will see smaller and simpler flower gardens than in previous years.

Decorations for parterres, which are ornamental gardens arranged to form patterns, are usually an important part of preparations for the weeklong National Day holiday, which starts on Oct 1, and those featured at Tian'anmen Square are major tourist attractions.

This year, however, in a bid to implement the central leadership's guidelines on curbing extravagance, the city government will slash its spending on decorations, said Yang Zhihua, an official with the Beijing Bureau of Landscape and Forestry, on Wednesday.

There will be an 18.2-meter-high parterre in the center of the square, but no such plant arrangements on the sides, while those near the Monument to the People's Heroes will be smaller than usual, Yang said.

Ten parterres will be set up along Chang'an Avenue, the city's main street, but none in front of any city government buildings, he said.

"We have selected more flowers of local species that survive Beijing's fall weather and bloom longer," the official said. "In some locations, we will replace flowers with green plants to reduce the cost of maintenance and save on manpower."

The country is in the middle of a campaign to excise undesirable work habits such as formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.

Last week, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection issued a circular urging officials to refrain from luxurious banquets and gift-giving ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional mooncake-eating occasion that falls on Sept 19 this year, and the National Day holidays from Oct 1 to 7.

(China Daily USA 09/12/2013 page5)