Tourist sites see China holiday surge, global lockdown eases
Print Edition
FROM the United States to Europe and Asia, people in many parts of the world are emerging from their homes as virus-related restrictions begin to ease and springtime temperatures climb.
China, which reported two new cases, is seeing a surge in visitors to tourist spots, many newly reopened, after domestic travel restrictions were relaxed ahead of the five-day May Day holiday that runs through tomorrow.
Nearly 1.7 million people visited Beijing parks on the first two days of the holiday, and Shanghai’s main tourist spots welcomed more than a million visitors, according to media reports. Many spots limited the number of daily visitors to 30 percent of capacity or less, keeping crowds below average.
The country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said yesterday that China saw nearly 85 million domestic tourist trips in the first three days of the holiday.
Tourism revenue totaled 35.06 billion yuan (US$4.97 billion) from May 1 to May 3, according to the ministry.
The traffic was smooth and orderly, the Ministry of Public Security said. As monitored at 200 points on the national highway network, the traffic flow from 12am to 4pm on Saturday dropped by 12.2 percent year on year, and fell by 21.9 percent from Friday.
Heavy traffic was monitored in northern parts of Beijing, the southern parts of east China’s Jiangsu Province and the Pearl River Delta in southern China’s Guangdong Province on Saturday morning, according to the agency.
Masks were worn widely around the world, from runners in Spain to beach-goers in the United States. In New York City’s Central Park, joggers moved past each other without a glance on Saturday, and a steady stream of folks left tips for a trio working their way through a set of jazz standards alfresco.
“It’s great to have an audience after all these weeks,” saxophonist Julia Banholzer, a native of Germany, said. “All my dates have been canceled through September, and I don’t know if any will come back this year. New York is a tough place, but this is just another tough period we need to get through.”
Neighboring New Jersey reopened state parks, though several had to turn people away after reaching a 50 percent limit in their parking lots. Margie Roebuck and her husband were among the first on the sand at Island Beach State Park. “Forty-six days in the house was enough,” she said.
But the global pandemic took a turn for the worse in other places. India yesterday reported more than 2,600 new cases, its biggest single-day jump. The number of confirmed cases in India neared 40,000 as the country of 1.3 billion people marked the 40th day of a nationwide lockdown that has upended lives and millions of jobs. The official death toll reached 1,301.
Indian air force helicopters showered flower petals on hospitals in several cities yesterday to thank doctors, nurses and police who have been at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic.
Afghanistan’s health ministry said yesterday that 156 people were confirmed positive out of 500 randomly tested in Kabul, the capital. Ministry spokesman Wahid Mayar called the results concerning and said that more cases would be found if the government was able to conduct more tests.
Russia announced 9,633 new cases on Saturday, and Pakistan, nearly 1,300, both one-day highs. More than half of Russia’s new cases were in Moscow, which is considering establishing temporary hospitals at sports complexes and malls amid the influx of patients.
The virus has killed more than 240,000 people worldwide, including over 66,000 in the United States, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
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