Four tourist attractions in southwest China's Sichuan Province, including the UNESCO World Heritage site Jiuzhaigou National Park, will reopen on March 31 after two months of closure due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, local tourism authorities said Thursday.

The announcement came after the country has seen major improvement in containing the novel coronavirus epidemic. As of Thursday midnight, 55 new COVID-19 cases were reported on the Chinese mainland, with 54 of them being imported, according to China's National Health Commission. 

Jiuzhaigou will impose a daily limit of 10,000 tourists, while the other three scenic sites – Huanglong National Park, Mount Siguniang and Dagu Glacier – will receive no more than 50 percent of the number of daily visitors. 

Like the rest of the tourist sites that have already resumed operations in China, a series of preventive measures will be implemented. All tickets are to be bought online, and visitors need to go through a registration process and body temperature checks upon entry. Tour groups of more than 30 people are temporarily suspended inside, and mask-wearing is a must during the visit.

The four sites will provide free entry to medical workers who have fought against the COVID-19 epidemic and an accompanying family member.

So far, the Jiuzhai Huanglong Airport in Songpan County of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture has resumed operations, with six round-trip flights a week linking Sichuan's provincial capity city Chengdu. More air routes connecting the cities of Beijing, Chongqing, Xi'an, Hangzhou and Changsha will reopen in May.

By the end of the month, all of the 5A-level scenic sites – the nation's most important and best maintained tourist sites – in Sichuan Province will have resumed operations, according to the local tourism authorities.

Read more: Badaling section of the Great Wall reopens from March 24

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover image via VCG; video by CGTN Nature filming crew and edited by An Qi)