The two people killed in Beijing, both men, died after setting off shoddy fireworks in the early hours of Thursday, the office said.

The 223 who suffered injuries had wounds ranging from eye injuries to burns, it said.

In Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, fire gutted a five-star hotel early on Thursday. Local officials said there were about 50 people in the hotel at the time and all were evacuated, without any reported casualties.

Hoses on fire engines sent to tackle the fire at the 219-meter-high building could only spray water 50 meters high.

The blaze was probably triggered by fireworks igniting external decorations, police said. Investigations into the cause are continuing.

The ministry's fire control bureau on Sunday required local authorities to be on 24-hour duty during the remainder of the holidays, particularly in drought-plagued Beijing, and Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces that have not seen effective rainfall since October.

The residue from fireworks also caused air pollution in cities. On Friday, 27 of the 86 monitored cities were polluted, according to figures from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Only two cities, Lhasa in Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region and Zhanjiang in South China's Guangdong province, enjoyed excellent air quality.

Sulfur dioxide and particulate matter were the major pollutants for most cities, monitoring figures show.

Wei Hongming, deputy director of the environmental monitoring station in Wuhan, in Central China's Hubei province, told reporters that fireworks were the main reason for the city's air pollution, as they released large amounts of smoke, dust and sulfur dioxide.

Air quality also suffered as car usage increased from Friday as people visited relatives and friends, experts said.