Forbidden no more as historic site reopens

Beijing’s parks and museums including the ancient Forbidden City reopened to the public yesterday after being closed for months by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Forbidden City, past home to China’s emperors, is allowing just 5,000 visitors daily, down from 80,000. And parks are allowing people to visit at 30 per cent of the usual capacity. One Beijing resident said this visit felt different than others, when the Forbidden City was more crowded. “When walking in some areas without others around I felt like getting back to the history,” Bian Jiang said.

Large-scale group activities remain on hold and visitors must book tickets in advance online, according to Gao Dawei, deputy director of the Beijing Gardening and Greeningbureau. Beijingonthursday downgraded its level of emergency response to the virus from first to second tier, but temperature checks and social distancing remain.

The change comes at the start of the five-day 1 May holiday and in advance of China’s rescheduled gathering of the National People’s Congress on 22 May.

China yesterday reported 12 new cases, six of them brought from overseas, and no new deaths for the 16th day. It has reported a total of 4,633 deaths from the virus among about 83,000 cases, mostly in the central city of Wuhan. Most recent cases reported in China have been among travellers arriving from abroad or in a northeastern province near the border with Russia.