Great Wall of China partly reopens to visitors

The famous Badaling section of the Great Wall of China partly opened on Tuesday, after being closed for almost two months due to the coronavirus pandemic which originated in the Asian giant last december. The scenic area will be open between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and the daily number of visitors will be capped at 19,500, reports Xinhua news agency. As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, a total of 892 tickets had been reserved. Visitors must book tickets on the official website or through WeChat in advance and register with their personal information to get a health code, while their temperatures will be checked upon entry. A one-way circular tour route has been designed to prevent the gathering of crowds. The cableway, the China Great Wall Museum, the ancient Great Wall and some other sections still remain closed. The Badaling section is located in Beijing's Yanqing district, about 60 km northwest of the city centre. It was one of the first sections to open to the public and also the most popular segment of the Unesco World Heritage among tourists. The scenic area received more than 9.9 million visitors in 2018. The move came on the same when the capital of Hubei province Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, announced that it will lift outbound travel curbs from April 8 after over two months of lockdown. On January 23, Wuhan declared unprecedented traffic restrictions, including suspending the city's public transport and all outbound flights and trains, in an attempt to contain the epidemic within its territory. Similar restrictions were soon introduced in other areas in Hubei. One new confirmed COVID-19 case was reported on Monday in Wuhan after the city had seen zero new reports for five consecutive days. It was also the sole new confirmed case reported in Hubei on Monday. As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases in China increased to 81,545, while the death toll stood at 3,281, according to the latest updates by the Washington-based John Hopkins University.

- IANS