Massive number of people flocked China's popular tourist sites and major cities over the country's holiday weekend, even after the dire warnings from health authorities that the risk posed by the coronavirus pandemic is still not over.

China comes out of lockdown

Thousands of people were crammed together in Anhui province on April 4, all eager to experience walking outside after months of being in quarantine. Even though they were wearing face masks, they still breached the social distancing order from the authorities.

As soon as the lockdown was lifted, people rushed to get into the popular tourist spots. The Huangshan mountain park immediately reached its capacity of 20,000 people per day, and according to Global Times, the park will no longer accept visitors.

Meanwhile, in Shanghai, the Bund waterfront was packed with tourists and shoppers, after weeks of being near-deserted. A lot of the restaurants in the city were shuttered only days ago, but now there are several establishments requiring reservations to enter.

In Beijing, locals flocked the city's parks and open spaces. The sudden return to apparent normality comes more than three months after the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan. The outbreak, which has since spread around the world, has infected more than a million people and it was also responsible for China being on standstill in their effort to contain transmissions.

At the peak of the virus, thousands of new cases were recorded in China every day. But in recent weeks, the rate of infection has slowed significantly. On April 6, China reported 39 new cases, and today the country has recorded 82,641 cases and 3,335 deaths. While the government is slowly relaxing restrictions, Chinese health experts have urged the public to continue to practice caution.

The chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zeng Guang, told the Health Times that China had not seen the end of the epidemic yet. He said "China is not near the end, but has entered a new stage. With the global epidemic raging, China has not reached the end."

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Too soon?

With the number of new infections in China slowly decreasing, the government has begun its efforts to restart the country's manufacturing and service industries. The collapse of inactivity has affected almost every sector of China's economy, leading to concerns of long term damage.

But in recent weeks, there have been signs that the government has been wary of opening up too fast and sparking a second wave of infections in the country. There are plans to re-open movie cinemas but they were canceled in late March, according to the state media. Also, numerous tourist attractions in Shanghai were open for just 10 days before they were shut again on March 31.

The official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party, the People's Daily, issued a report about the crowds at Huangshan. This led to the party executing a stern reprimand on social media and warning tourists to not gather just yet. In the newspaper's website, an opinion writer stated that while it was understandable that people would want to get out after being on lockdown for months, now was not the time to stop being vigilant.

The article stated that if there are asymptomatic carriers present during the gatherings, the consequences would be severe. According to the paper, Huangshan has announced it will stop receiving tourists.

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