Changsha businesses begin to reopen

Commercial streets, shopping malls and visitor attractions in the city of Changsha, Hunan province are slowly filling with people as tighter restrictions are lifted but with epidemic controls remaining in place.

The province lowered its emergency response level 1, being the highest, to level 2 on March 10. And locals, who had stayed at home for months, are coming out to eat, shop and go sightseeing, with face masks on and body temperatures taken in more densely populated spaces.

At Huangxingnan pedestrian street, a major commercial cluster in the city, people waited in line for milk tea, each keeping 1.5 meters of distance away from another. Most of the stores had reopened. Officials from the street said visitor flow reached about 80 percent of what it was normally.

On March 21 and 22, or the third weekend of March, there were 19,212 visits to Orange Isle, a scenic spot in Changsha. Data from the local department of tourism, culture, radio and television showed 54 A-level scenic spots in Changsha had reopened by March 23, 91.5 percent of all such attractions.

Changsha has put forward policies to award farmers' markets, supermarkets and vegetables wholesale markets that stayed open to ensure food supply during the outbreak. By Feb 4, 32 supermarkets, 132 stores selling fresh produce and 209 farmers' markets in the city were operating.

A commuter named Jiang, said the bus station was beginning to fill up and there are more cars on the road and parked on the streets nowadays.

Li Haiqing contributed to this story.