BEIJING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Chinese capital Beijing have ordered more than 8,000 busy public places in the city to use both Chinese and English for emergency broadcasts, a municipal work safety official said on Tuesday.

    This is part of a new regulation on the safety of public places adopted by the Beijing municipal government.

    In an emergency, crowded public places including shopping malls, restaurants, star-rated hotels, swimming pools, skiing grounds and other entertainment venues should broadcast in both languages over their entire premises, said Zhou Yuqiu, head of the municipal work safety bureau.

    She said enterprises will be fined 5,000 to 20,000 yuan (640 to2,561 U.S. dollars) or closed if they failed to offer the bilingual emergency broadcasts by April 1 when the regulation takes effect.

    According to the regulation, 24-hour emergency lighting and exit signs are also now compulsory for the sites in question.

    Entertainment venues must install closed-circuit TV and monitoring systems, according to the regulation.