Shanghai halts entertainment activities for 3 days

2008-05-19

SHANGHAI will suspend all entertainment and leisure activities for the next three days to coincide with the nation's mourning period for victims of the Sichuan earthquake, the city's media watchdog announced late yesterday.

Entertainment programs on television, radio, mobile phones, IP TV, and the Internet will be rebroadcast. Theater performances and concerts will be postponed and cinemas will be closed from today through Wednesday, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture Radio Film & TV announced.

Also, public video and audio facilities will be switched off.

Karaoke bars, dance halls and card rooms will also close while tea houses and restaurants will refrain from playing background music, the administration said.

The central government yesterday declared three days of national mourning for victims in the country's most devastating disaster since 1976 and suspended the Olympic torch relay.

The number of confirmed deaths in the 8.0-magnitude earthquake had risen to 32,476 by 4pm yesterday while 220,109 people were injured in the catastrophe.

The three days of mourning will include three minutes of silence to be observed nationwide at 2:28pm today, exactly one week after the quake struck Sichuan.

The public is asked to stand in silence for three minutes while automobiles, trains and ships will salute with horns.

All national flags will fly at half-mast at government buildings and at Chinese diplomatic missions abroad.

Beijing Olympic organizers said the torch relay would be suspended "to express our deep mourning to the victims of the earthquake."

The Ningbo leg relay, originally set for today, will be postponed until Thursday. The relay's next stop, Shanghai, will also put off the relay originally scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday.