Intelligent technologies including an intelligent image snapshot system and a lamppost integrated with Wi-Fi and video surveillance debut in Zhongguancun, a technology hub in Haidian district, Beijing. Photo: VCG

Beijing traffic authorities set up 359 more surveillance cameras, most of which can monitor the downtown, including the Beijing Railway Station area and Dongjiaominxiang, where the municipal police bureau, supreme procuratorate and court are located.

The Beijing Traffic Management Bureau released on Monday on its website the location of the newly installed traffic monitoring equipment.

Nearly two-thirds of the equipment were recently installed in the downtown area - 145 in Dongcheng district, 95 in Chaoyang district - where the central business district is concentrated - and 49 in Daxing district, where the new airport is located. Surveillance cameras have ballooned at many roads in the downtown area. 

Seven more surveillance equipment were installed in Dongcheng's Dongjiaominxiang, previously known as "embassy row," which now includes a Beijing cultural relics protection block.

The public surveillance network can help improve Beijing's public security, supervise traffic violations, and prevent and crack down on crime, said Wang Hongwei, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of Public Administration and Policy.

Wang also brushed off privacy concerns saying that security authorities have a strict approval process to collect surveillance data and strict regulations on surveillance management to protect privacy and uphold the public interest.