A resident cleans a tombstone at the Babaoshan Cemetery in west Beijing on Saturday in honor of the upcoming Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day. More than 320,000 residents went to 75 cemeteries in the city to sweep graves and grieve for lost relatives. [Photo: the Beijing News]

Beijingers have started flocking to the city's cemeteries in crowds for the Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, to honor their deceased relatives.

Approximately 320,000 residents had already visited 75 cemeteries in the capital as of Saturday to clean the graves of their ancestors and grieve for deceased relatives, the Beijing News reported.

The local civil affairs department said the number was less than expected due to rainy weather this weekend.

Although the official public holiday for the Tomb Sweeping Day is scheduled on April 4, Babaoshan Cemetery in west Beijing welcomed its first visitor as early as 6 a.m. Saturday.

To ease the traffic, all 20 municipal cemeteries opened to the public before 6:30 a.m. in accordance with the mandate of the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau. The cemeteries will adopt more flexible opening and closing times to accommodate the expected larger flows of people in the coming days.

More than 2,800 policemen were stationed on the roads to maintain order, while firemen were posted at the cemeteries. Babaoshan Cemetery increased its security guards from 20 to nearly 100, the report said.