Worshippers seeking blessings pack temples

The Spring Festival tradition of burning incense and praying to ancestors and the gods is drawing tens of thousands to temples across the country this week.

The Spring Festival tradition of burning incense and praying to ancestors and the gods is drawing tens of thousands to temples across the country this week. At Beijing's Yonghe Lama Temple, about 76,000 people burned incense and sought blessings from gods and goddesses on Friday - the first day of the lunar calendar.

Before the temple opened at 6 a.m. Beijing time, the line-up to get in stretched almost seven hundred meters around the block. The temple said it was doing its part to reduce air pollution by handing out environmentally-friendly incense this year.

A man from Hubei province had waited in line for twenty hours hoping to be the first through the gates. Unfortunately, in his rush he forgot to pick up incense and had to backtrack to get some, causing him to miss the first place this year.