BEIJING: China’s Forbidden City will reopen on Friday, three months after it closed due to the coronavirus crisis — the latest signal that the country has brought the disease under control.

The sprawling imperial palace sitting across Tiananmen Square was shut down on January 25 as authorities closed tourist attractions and took other extraordinary measures to contain the virus, including locking down an entire province.

The Palace Museum, which manages the Forbidden City, announced on Wednesday that it will reopen from May 1, with a daily limit of 5,000 visitors — down from 80,000 before the pandemic.

Authorities have implemented other measures to reduce risks of infections at the cultural site, which in normal times attracted huge crowds. Visitors will have to wear masks and show health codes on a special mobile phone app that indicates if they are an infection risk before entering.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2020