Medical staff offered free admission

As the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak shows signs of slowing in China, some provinces and regions have been resuming their tourism businesses.

More than 1,000 Chinese scenic areas that have resumed operations recently have started offering free entry services for medical workers.

Chinese tourism and travel website Ctrip published a list showing at least 1,067 scenic sites in 195 cities that are offering free admission for medical workers, including natural scenery areas, theme parks, exhibition halls, cruise ships and historical sites.

Ctrip's statistics show that Anhui, Jiangsu, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Zhejiang, Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Tianjin, Shaanxi and Yunnan offered the most free entries to scenic spots for medical workers.

East China's Anhui tops all other provinces by providing 138 scenic sites with preferential policies for medical workers, followed by Jiangsu and Guangxi, with their numbers of free entry scenic spots at 112 and 106, respectively.

So far, more than 20 famous tourist spots, such as West Lake, Fuzi Temple and Xuanwu Lake, had resumed operations by Thursday, and more scenic sites are expected to be operational by early March.

Statistics also show that among more than 8,000 domestic scenic sites that support tickets sales on Ctrip, the percentage of operating scenic sites is still very low, but the situation is expected to see a shift with the progress of the NCP outbreak fight.

Sanya in South China's Hainan province was set to resume part of its tourism, culture and sports industries from Thursday, Hainan Daily reported on Thursday.

Among the tourism sites in Sanya, Wuzhizhou Island, Tianya Haijiao Scenic Area, Luhuitou Park and Dongtian Tourist Area resumed operations by Friday.

According the Sanya's official tourism authority, these outdoor tourism spots and sports grounds are low risk areas, and they will see an all-round resumption soon. But indoor scenic spots, art museums, libraries, entertainment venues, internet bars, bookstores, cinemas and gyms will remain closed.

All scenic sites in Sanya will require real-name reservations before entering sites, and all tourists have to show their health condition records and receive health checkups at entrance gates.