20,000 people pack popular Chinese tourist spot after health restrictions lifted

Chinese tourist spots were packed over the weekend as the country lifted travel restrictions that had been in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

Huangshan Mountain reached its daily limit of 20,000 visitors by 7:48 a.m. local time Sunday, state media Global Times reported. A few hours later, visitors awaiting entrance were advised to come back on a different day.

Images from the mountain showed people packed in crowds on the narrow walkway.

People are packed at Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), a jagged range of more than 70 knifelike peaks in eastern China’s Anhui province, after quarantine ban lifted in most parts of China #CoronavirusPandemic pic.twitter.com/SiVunZJys5

— Keith Zhai (@QiZHAI) April 5, 2020

Huangshan Mountain in Anhui province wasn’t the only location drawing large amounts of tourists over the weekend, CNN reported.

The Bund waterfront in Shanghai was packed with shoppers, and some restaurants in the city required reservations after being shut down days before, according to CNN.

Health experts in China have warned that the public should still be cautious as the pandemic is not yet over.

“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, told the Health Times last week, CNN reported Monday.

The virus, which was first detected in Wuhan, China, has led to more than 1.2 million confirmed cases globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

China has reported more than 82,000 cases, far less than the U.S. and some European countries. But a confidential report from the U.S. intelligence community indicated Beijing may have lowered the number of cases in its borders, Bloomberg News reported last week.

China’s National Health Commission on Monday said 78 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases had been identified, up from 47 the previous day. China only began reporting the number of asymptomatic cases last week.

Health experts have warned that asymptomatic carriers can unknowingly transmit the disease, causing some concern as China begins lifting travel restrictions.