VIEWS OF THE POPULATION

July 27th, 1987, the highest temperature on this day is 35 degrees Celsius.

From 12 o’clock at noon to the 13th hour, one reporter and a few staff workers from <Beijing Daily> respectively stood at the four main entrances to the biggest department store in the city, counting the volume of the customers. The temperature outside is very high and the hot air inside is also so intense as to be insufferable. The results of the count (indicates), within this hour 8240 people came in with the heat wave and 9680 people exited with the odor of sweat.

On July 30th, the Beijing TV station reports, the volume of travelers in the Beijing railway station was very high, the daily volume reaching 33 thousand; but the designed capacity for the railway station is no more than 50 to 60 thousand people daily. All the ticket checking halls were turned into temporary waiting rooms, but on the square in front of the main hall of the station there were still a sea of people.

During the 1988 spring commodity faire, a group of Japanese businessmen stayed at the Guangzhou Hotel. One day at dusk one Japanese businessman was standing in front of the window watching the street. As if there were a new discovery, he pointed to the outside of the window and cried with surprise: "Hayaku, mite kudasai!" (Japanese: come quick and look!). Immediately, four or five Japanese businessmen walked towards the window, their eyes all looking towards the direction of the Pearl River Bridge. At this time the bicycles that came to and fro, came and went like locusts, merged at the two sides of the Pearl River Bridge, and turned into to a dense flow of people and vehicles, like a never ending million-strong troop.

These Japanese businessmen commented: "Simply a sight of wonder!"

Specialists are of the opinion that the Chinese population, if increasing at the present speed, will reach over 120 hundred millions by the end of 1995.