Chinese heritage site reopens after one-month closure in epidemic

ZHENGZHOU -- The Longmen Grottoes in Central China's Henan province, a world cultural heritage site, reopened to visitors on Monday, a month after its closure amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A small number of tourists, wearing face masks, visited the site in the city of Luoyang on Monday.

Tourists should have a normal body temperature and wear a mask. They need to book their admission tickets online and enter the scenic area using a "face swiping" system, according to the scenic area administration commission.

The facilities at the tourist site, including tourist boats, electric tourist buses, toilets and tourist centers, are ordered to be disinfected three times a day.

The scenic area administration commission also controls the visitor numbers, with the tourist boats and buses operating at up to half of the designed passenger capacity.

The tourist site was closed to visitors on Jan 24, with all tourism activities being halted, in a bid to reduce the risk of cross-infection of the virus.

The Longmen Grottoes include more than 2,300 grottoes with 110,000 Buddhist figures and images, over 80 dagobas and 2,800 inscribed tablets, created between the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-557) and Song Dynasty (960-1279).