Looks like China has finally overcome the Coronavirus pandemic that originated here. After months of lockdown, the country has finally lifted the travel restrictions from several places, and a number of tourist attractions in China were seen packed with Chinese revellers during the 3-day Qingming Festival over the weekend.
Apparently, the festival started on Saturday and tourism in the country too picked up in sync. However, as per the experts, it is extremely dangerous for people to roam around in such numbers as the possibility of COVID-19 transmission is higher at tourist spots.
On Sunday, Huangshan Mountain, which is a prime tourist spot in the Anhui Province of China, experienced a large number of tourists. To promote tourism, the site exempted 190 yuan ($26.7) entrance fee for residents.
Do not gather! Huangshan Mountain, a famous tourist spot in E China’s Anhui, was forced to close within one hour on Sun morning when visitor number exceeded the 20,000 cap. The mountain reopened to public in late Feb after a month-long shutdown due to #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/RhKcH9bTW9
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) April 5, 2020
This happened despite several warnings issued from the health authorities in China as the Coronavirus risk is far from over. Several pictures from the Huangshan mountain park were shared on the internet, showing thousands of Chinese wearing face masks, but still close together.
As per media reports, the rush to get inside was absolutely crazy and at 7:48 AM, and authorities had to issue a notice declaring that the park had reached its daily capacity of 20000 visitors. The authorities issued another notice at around 10 AM, asking visitors to plan their visit some other day.
People are packed at Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), a jagged range of more than 70 knifelike peaks in eastern China’s Anhui province, after quarantine ban lifted in most parts of China #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/SiVunZJys5
— Keith Zhai (@QiZHAI) April 5, 2020
On the other hand, the renowned Bund waterfront in Shanghai was seen flooded with shoppers and tourists. The restaurants in the city were also reportedly packed with people. Similarly, the parks in the Chinese capital city Beijing were also seen packed with people.
Apparently, the Coronavirus outbreak started in the Chinese city of Wuhan and as per current data, 12,87,742 people are infected with 70,559 deaths across the globe.