SHENZHENERS are encouraged to take public transport to visit the tourist spots and parks across the city during the upcoming May Day holiday to avoid traffic congestion as the city’s transport authority has taken a number of measures such as increasing buses and bus routes to address residents’ needs for holiday outings.

Residents are reassured of the safety against possible infection of the novel coronavirus while taking public buses as stringent protection measures have been implemented on buses.

All bus operators in the city are required to carry out regular disinfections on buses after every one-way trip. Bus drivers and conductors will make sure every single person on board the bus wears a face mask and scans a QR code to declare their whereabouts. Bus windows will be required to remain open for ventilation during the entire trip.

Responding to a new policy that many of the parks and tourist spots across the city require visitors to make advanced reservations, a QR code for making appointments for specific destinations will be available on buses that service the area.

Residents can scan the QR code to make their reservations before visiting. Those who have not made reservations will be denied entry.

The move to require reservations before visiting is aimed at controlling the number of visitors in a popular spot to avoid overcrowding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The transport authority will assign extra buses onto routes of popular tourism spots such as the Window of the World theme park and the Shenzhen Bay Park in Nanshan District, the Lianhua Hill Park in Futian, the Fairylake Botanical Garden and Wutong Mountain.

Several dozen buses on stand-by will be stationed at bus terminals such as Dawang Village and Fenghuang Mountain, as well as transport hubs like railway stations and high-speed train stations, in case they are needed.  

(Claudia Wei)