As attractions across China reopen with the lifting of coronavirus restrictions, visitors flock to popular tourist sites over the weekend.
The Huangshan mountain range, a popular tourist site in China in the Anhui province, was forced to close after tens of thousands of people visited this weekend according to South China Morning Post.
Ticket sales stopped as daily limit reached
The Anhui provincial government offered free entry to 29 sites on Saturday 4 April to boost visitor numbers after months of lockdown. The site took extra safety precautions, such as visitors wearing masks, sharing their health status on an app, and having their temperature checked before entering.
However, the visitor attraction quickly had to close because of overcrowding. On Sunday park authorities said that the site had reached the daily limit of 20,000 people. Authorities urged people to visit the mountains another time.
Overflowing with tourists, the Huangshan scenic area in Anhui, #China halts ticket sales on Apr. 5 as it reaches the daily limit of 20,000 tourists. Staff workers there say Anhui residents can enter the scenic spot for free. https://t.co/H51oEoUgXx pic.twitter.com/myljKYyYnF
— The Paper 澎湃新闻 (@thepapercn) April 5, 2020
Images and videos on social media and on Weibo show crowded pathways on the mountain range. Sunday also happened to fall within the three-day festival Qingming. After months of staying inside, people were obviously desperate to get out.
The Third wave of Pandemic in China may come up very near. After quarantine in 3months, the crowded and gathering again in China, Huangshan (黃山), Anhui (安徽) province in eastern China few days ago. Without wear face mask and fever checking.@SolomonYue #WuhanVirus pic.twitter.com/mXePKl4fcF
— Franky Hong (@FrankyHong1) April 6, 2020
Attractions close again in China
Tourism and cultural attractions have been hard hit by the outbreak in China. Although several attractions have started to reopen, many have to to close again.
In Shanghai, indoor tourist attractions were closed again after just a few weeks of opening in March. Cinemas around China had started to reopen, but closed again at the end of March.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a spike in coronavirus cases forced attractions to close again. There is speculation that the Chinese government is worried about a second wave of cases. If that is the case, attractions like the Huangshan Mountains will likely have to close again.
Another tourist site that attracted lots of people at the weekend was the Palace Museum in Beijing. Although it is still closed, several live streams of the museum attracted millions of views.
