China will embrace an opportunity for tourism on the International Labour Day holiday, Xinhua reported.
Tourist spots will be open while following regular epidemic prevention and control measures.
The five-day International Labour Day holiday will be the first time that the country will be opening tourism sites in more than four months.
“Safety comes first,” said Yu Xiufen, head of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.
In Wuhan, which was the epicentre of the pandemic, a tourist spot called Huanghelou, also known as the Yellow Crane Tower, reopened on Wednesday. Officials held a ceremony—they invited 12 representatives from medical staff, volunteer groups, police and residential community committees, who worked to fight COVID-19.
The representatives rang the tower's bell nine times, expressing their wishes for the deceased to rest in peace. As many as 84 major tourist attractions and over 5,200 hotels have reopened in Wuhan.
The tourist spots have been instructed to receive only 30 per cent of their real-time or daily visitor capacity. ‘Cloud tourism’ has been made possible and is being encouraged, by enabling booking of live-streaming sessions.
Authorities have urged that efforts should be made to control passenger flows, prevent the gatherings of crowds, implement reservation systems and raise public awareness of epidemic prevention and control.
Zhang Ke, an employee with a duty-free shop in downtown Haikou, capital of Hainan, said, “One-meter bars were set at the shop's sales counters and sanitisers were provided, while staff will keep customer flows at a safe distance and disinfect public areas regularly every day.”
Public areas like metro stations, commercial centres, airports and train stations in Shanghai and many other cities have been installed with 5G infrared thermal imaging temperature measurement systems.
