Beijing, April 7: Even as most parts of the world look forward to a strenuous battle against the novel coronavirus, China - the disease epicentre - is smoothly moving towards normalcy. The country's popular tourist attractions were thrown open last weekend, and ended up drawing an unprecedented crowds.
The nature trail site, located in Huangshan mountain park in eastern Anhui province, saw over 20,000 visitors arriving by 7:48 am on April 5. The surge of tourists forced the authorities to shutdown the trail till further orders. The visuals emerging from the site showed an absolute violation of the social distancing norm -- which is considered as the key to restrict COVID-19 transmission.
As per the visuals shared on social media, the tourists could be seen queued up at a distance of barely 6 inches from each other. The entire nature trail was filled with humans, with the high-footfall severely restricting movement along the trail.
China's state-owned daily Global Times shared a footage from the nature trail, saying that the number of tourists exceeded the daily limit of 20,000.
Watch Video of Mass Gathering at Chinese Tourist Spot
#Huangshan Mountain, a 5-A tourist attraction in East #China's Anhui Province, closed to tourists on Sunday morning due to an overflow of tourists after it exempted its 190 yuan ($26.7) entrance fee to residents of the province to promote tourism amid #COVID19.
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The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, frowned upon the nature lovers for putting others at risk by turning out in such high numbers at the Huangshan mountain park. The newspaper asked the countrymen to remain vigilant as the threat of coronavirus has not completely subsided.
Apart from the nature trail in Anhui province, the Bund Waterfront in Shanghai was also frequented by hundreds of tourists. A number of parks, cafes and restaurants were seen full in capital Beijing and Shanghai. The high turnout has alarmed the authorities, who have warned of a possible second wave of COVID-19. "China is not near the end, but has entered a new stage. With the global epidemic raging, China has not reached the end," Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was reported as saying.
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