In Chongqing municipality, the first person caught drunk driving was a construction contractor, surnamed Liao. He was stopped by police at a checkpoint at Xiyong avenue in Shapingba district as he was driving his drunk friend home.

A test showed his system contained 129.9 milligrams of alcohol for every 100 milliliters of blood. Liao was accused of dangerous driving and was detained by police on Sunday morning.

By 3 am the same morning, police had caught 16 drunk drivers in Chongqing, local traffic authority said.

The new rule has been widely applauded in Shanghai. In a survey conducted by xinmin.cn, a news portal based in Shanghai, more than 90 percent of 656 respondents said they support harsher punishments for drunk driving.

In Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, 550 traffic police officers were dispatched to conduct special checks at 40 entertainment sites and important road junctions from 1 am to 6 am on Sunday.

"Drunk driving is one of the biggest causes of traffic accidents," Li Guifang, deputy head of the criminal defense committee under the All-China Lawyers Association, told China Daily.

"Harsher punishments can suppress the occurrence of traffic accidents.

"But it's not appropriate to inflict criminal punishment on all drunk drivers, and the authorities should make it clear which violations will be subject to criminal punishment."