Sub-district office staff offer sanitation workers sweet mung bean soup.[Photo/my399.com]

As the weather gets stuffier, the city of Harbin has begun an activity to encourage different groups and organizations to care for sanitation workers, who have to toil under summer heat.

Han Fei, the owner of a snack bar, said, ''I get up before 5 o'clock in the morning to cook plenty of sweet mung bean soup.'' And then Han puts chairs and desks outside his bar for sanitation workers to rest and enjoy the soup. ''I look around for sanitation people working in the street, in case they don't know about free soup here,'' he adds.

Chain restaurants also provide sweet soup from their branches in several districts. In front of the Tongda sub-district office, two sanitation workers said they were comforted by the soup and the warm-hearted care. They promised that they will treasure the memory and try their best to keep the city clean and beautiful.