BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- China will strengthen food and drug safety in major tourist spots during the upcoming National Day holiday, the national food and drug watchdog said.

    Local food and drug departments are required to be on duty 24 hours a day during the seven-day holiday, report food and drug emergencies in time and properly handle them in accordance with relevant plans, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said.

    It ordered local food and drug departments to strengthen supervision of restaurants, food markets, service sectors in major tourist spots, and carry out inspections of medicines and medical instruments in tourism cities.

    Local food and drug departments are required to educate companies to be self-disciplined and provide information about self-protection to customers to prevent incidents concerning food and drug safety from happening, it said.

    The National Day holiday, from Oct. 1 to 7, is one of the three "Golden Weeks" when people are encouraged to travel.

    During the last National Day holiday, Beijing alone reported a total of 4.32 million visitors.