Visitors walk on a bridge at a wetland park in Huangshan, Anhui province, on April 10. [Photo by Shi Guangde/For China Daily]
As the epidemic eases, more people are venturing out of their homes to quell boredom while avoiding crowds.
Over the past three months, people across China led isolated lives, confined in limited spaces at home and spending their time telecommuting, cooking, overindulging in cellphone usage and interacting with only family members.
These collective efforts to stay home paid off as the country has seen the number of novel coronavirus cases plummet.
With the epidemic situation winding down and spring bringing warmer temperatures, those who have put their outdoor activities on hold for a long time have recently shown their desire to take a breath of fresh air.
A report by Ctrip, an online provider of travel services based in Shanghai, stated that more people booked for tours within their provinces last month, triple that of March.
According to an analysis by the China Tourism Academy, most urban tourists traveled farther in April, with an average trip radius of 3.6 kilometers during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday (April 4-6)－a 36.8 percent increase of that during Spring Festival.
Qiao Yuanchen, a 35-year-old working in the finance industry in Beijing, said she cherishes the opportunity to experience nature more than before the outbreak.
"I need to go to the office every other week and my husband has been working from home since the outbreak," Qiao said. "Working at home was not any easier because my 6-year-old son doesn't need to go to school due to the outbreak. He wouldn't concentrate on doing his homework and tends to make trouble to attract my attention."
She added that she now needs to prepare three meals instead of just dinner as she did before the outbreak.
"We used to go on an outing once a week before the outbreak, but now we look forward to our routine weekly excursions more than ever. We usually find places with fewer people in the countryside," she said.
Tourists ride on bamboo rafts at the Xiazhu Lake National Wetland Park in Deqing, Zhejiang province, on April 5. [Photo by Wang Zheng/For China Daily]
"Being stuck at home has made people bored, especially my boy who wants to meet his friends at school. It was hiking that brought him happiness and my happiness is derived from him."
Ji Qingchuan, a community worker in Beijing, said sightseeing helped him relieve mental stress because he had more work to do, especially after a surge in the number of people returning to China from abroad.
"As the outbreak has spread globally, more Chinese people have been returning to Beijing from overseas, which meant we needed to inspect more people," he said. "Moreover, the requirements from the city government varied along with the changing situation, so we need to stay alert all the time at work."
The 32-year-old said that he preferred sitting in some pavilion on top of a mountain and quietly enjoying the scenery with his girlfriend.
"We would search the internet for scenic spots that are still open during the outbreak and make self-drive tours," Ji said. "Over the past few weekends, we have been to several parks including the Mangshan National Forest Park in northern Beijing and Nanhaizi Park in the far south."
The increasing passion among people to travel, triggers safety risks as tourist crowds gathering in scenic spots increases the risk of cross infection. During the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, such scenes sparked heated discussions online.
A father and son play at a park in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on April 6. [Photo by Wang Zheng/For China Daily]
In an online video that went viral last month, thousands of tourists thronged the entrance of Huangshan Mountain in Huangshan, Anhui province, waiting to get their temperatures checked. The narrator of the video said that he was able to move only 1 km in two hours.
Another viral video showed a staff member using a loudspeaker to organize a crowd of people lining up to board boats at the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Zhang Kaixin, a 65-year-old former Beijing wool factory worker, said she takes a cautious stance toward the virus situation and would not choose popular destinations for outings.
Before the outbreak, she usually walked around the campus of the Beijing Sport University near her home. The university, well-known for its examples of architecture combining Western and Oriental styles, and for having a friendly environment for physical exercise, served as an attractive place of leisure for lots of people living nearby.
However, since the closure of the university following the outbreak, Zhang and her female friend had to seek out other places for their daily exercise. "We dared not go out in February because of the outbreak," Zhang said. "As the number of confirmed cases falls and the weather is getting warmer now, we tend to drive to somewhere with few people like mountains on the outskirts of the city."
In March, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice encouraging people to go on short trips, adding that attractions, mainly outdoor ones, should resume operations to revive and boost the tourism economy.
By the end of March, a total of 6,442 A-level tourist attractions in China reopened, making up 54 percent of attractions reopened across the country.
The notice also offered guidelines on improving ticket reservations, digital tours, emergency response systems and the management of scenic spots.
Two children relax in a tent at a fruit plantation on the outskirts of Huaibei, Anhui province. [Photo by Zhou Fangling/For China Daily]
Miao Xiangliu, director of the service management department at the Beijing Administration Center of Parks, said that the center has required 10 parks, like Jingshan Park and the Summer Palace that are under its management, to allow for ticket reservations and online bookings to be made one to seven days in advance.
"Online bookings can avoid crowds lining up at park entrances for tickets and reduce risks of the virus spread," Miao said. "All the parks of our center will not allow visitor numbers surpassing 30 percent of their daily capacities."
According to Miao, the parks were nearly fully booked every weekend and the center came up with various ways to prevent people from getting into crowds.
"We designed one-way tours around those parks so that it will be difficult for people to walk pass each other," he said. "We have also guided the parks to arrange staff members at scenic spots based on their topographies and degrees of popularity to ensure people keep a safe distance from one another while they are on their tours."
Cameras are also installed around the parks and workers at the command centers monitor people movement and give advice online.
"In this way, tourists can have both a safe environment and a comfortable experience completely different from before the outbreak," Miao said. "Meanwhile, we will keep to our defense against the virus and will be on our guard until the end of the outbreak."
