Tourism is back in China, with a national holiday known as Golden Week injecting $96 billion into the economy. So how has the nation avoided a catastrophic new coronavirus outbreak?
Just six months ago, Yi Yu's hometown was emerging from the world's first — and one of its strictest — lockdowns.About 640 million travellers injected $96 billion into the economyBut during China's Golden Week earlier this month, the streets of Wuhan, once ground zero COVID-19, were bustling with tourists."I saw a lot of people lining up in front of a small street-food bar the other day. I can tell most of them are tourists.
Tourism has returned to Wuhan, but college teacher Yu Yi says the psychological injuries caused by the pandemic will take time to heal. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said traveller numbers for Golden Week were at 80 per cent compared to last year, while tourism spending was at 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.Social distancing appears to be a thing of the past in many parts of China.
Chinese state media credits the country's traffic-light "health code system", which uses popular smartphone apps and QR codes, with making such large volumes of travel possible.The apps synchronise a citizen's ID and their travel history. Their device pings nearby mobile phone towers to track their location and reveal whether they have been to areas deemed to be a high or medium risk during the past 14 days.
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