Huge piles of burning incense sticks have been left around the Taihao Mausoleum in Huaiyang County, Henan Province, after the Dragon Head Raising Festival on February 27, 2017.

The festival has attracted crowds of worshippers to come, resulting in numerous of burning incense sticks being dumped around the place. Many temple visitors even violated explicit restrictions of the local government and brought incense sticks whose size exceeded the maximum length of 50cm and diameter of 1cm.

Dense smoke mixed with paper dust from combustible sacrificial offerings rose from the fireplace. And temple staff had to use fire extinguishers and two tractor shovels to clean up the burning remains. Several trees near the incense burners were scorched and coated in ash.