Nearly a year after the Chinese city of Wuhan drew international headlines for being the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the city wants tourists to visit.
The Wuhan Culture and Tourism Bureau released an ad highlighting idyllic views of the 11-million-person city and the nature that surrounds it.
Piano music and singing are heard as the video flips between shots of dining, art, and culture. Aerial footage highlights architecture and the Yangtze River, which weaves through the center of the city. The advertisement gives no hint to viewers that just months prior, people were sick and dying, residents were quarantined indoors under strict orders, and hospitals were erected in mere days as the pandemic took hold of China’s Hubei province.
“Wuhan never hesitate to show its beauty, and those who love it deeply hope that more people can understand it,” the bureau posted on Facebook last month along with the ad.
“From the myriad twinkling lights along the Yangtze River and the amazing dance and music from the Zhiyin cruise, to the glittering light and beautiful voices from the livehouse……give me five! Everyone! Looking forward to meeting you in Wuhan,” the post continued.
Domestic travel to Wuhan has been booming since the city reopened. Chinese tourists flocked to the landlocked city during China’s Golden Week celebrations in October. More than 18 million tourists visited the city between Oct. 1-8, according to data from the Wuhan Tourism Bureau.
Wuhan made headlines over the summer when video emerged showing throngs of maskless revelers partying it up shoulder to shoulder at a water park in the once-locked-down city as electronic music blared. The Chinese Communist Party-backed Global Times later lauded the party as “payback” for its strict coronavirus restrictions.
Since its emergence, believed to be in Wuhan, the coronavirus has infected more than 65.5 million people and has been attributed to some 1.5 million deaths worldwide.
