Park visitors enjoy the sunny weather at a park in Beijing. Photo: cnsphoto

The Beijing Municipal Government will in mid-April release its first uncivilized behavior blacklist for park visitors, with five behaviors discouraged during the COVID-19 pandemic: failing to wear a mask, gathering in crowds, spitting, disorderly behavior and ticket scalping.

The blacklist concerns 13 behaviors to be banned in parks, of which five are discouraged during the pandemic, the China News reported on Monday, citing a Monday statement from Ye Xiangyang, director of the Capital Greening Office's landscaping park management.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has cooled and spring has sprung, Beijing residents have started visiting parks during the weekends. 

"There were many visitors during the recent holiday and weekends," an employee at the management office with Olympic Forest Park told the Global Times on Monday. "But we keep the traffic under 30 percent of the average daily flow before the outbreak as the government has required," she noted.

To help keep the park orderly, a volunteer group sent about 100 volunteers to the five big parks in Beijing on Sunday, to help remind visitors to wear their masks while visiting and practice social distancing. 

"Most tourists wore masks in the parks, but a few joggers didn't. Our volunteers would remind them by showing them a self-made sign that said 'please wear masks'," Liu Jianhua, leader of the volunteer group, told the Global Times. 

Liu believed that the blacklist regulating visitor behavior would help maintain order and ensure visitor safety.

"The crackdown on uncivilized park behaviors will be intensified this year, with the participation of not only landscaping departments, but also five other government departments including the urban management administration," Ye said.

Though COVID-19 has been largely contained in China, risks from imported cases and the incubation period of the virus still remain, thus prevention and control work is still mandatory.

The city will also step up law enforcement, and certain uncivilized behaviors will be punishable with a fine of between 50 yuan ($7.09) and 100 yuan, according to Beijing park regulations.