Beijing Times, January 18, 2011

Beijing's municipal congressional sessions are underway at the moment, and the city is at peace.

In fact, it's so at peace that fifty communities have been given special awards for being the "most peaceful." Today's Beijing Times leads off with the story about the poll, which began on December 6, 2010.

By the conclusion at midnight on January 14, 2011, 2,574,899 votes had been placed online and by mobile phone. Ultimately, fifty communities stood out after the headed contest to occupy the Top 50 rankings and win the title of Most Peaceful Community. Longxiang in Aoyuncun and the Xinhua Agency community on Erlong Road received 82,352 and 71,211 votes, respectively, to win first and second place.

This year's selection differed from years previous in that the public could vote on the nominees, rather than having the winners chosen by public security and other government departments. The paper (which sponsored the poll) spoke with Liu Tao, deputy director of the population management team at the city's Public Security Bureau:

Reporter: What are the characteristics of the winning peaceful communities?
Liu Tao: Some of them are distinguished by using technology to create peace, others have strengthened the connections between residents and the floating population. They each have their own uniqueness. At the same time, these peaceful communities all satisfy the selection requirements: no break-ins have occurred in the past year, and local police enjoy at least a 95% approval rate among community residents.

The fifty winning communities were chosen from among 100 nominees.

In the front-page image, police inspect cases of fireworks to ensure that they are properly registered and licensed. The headline just below reports that a natural gas explosion in Jilin City yesterday killed three people and left 28 injured.