"Scenic spots open," "Clubs open," "Tourists pouring in." The headlines covered the front page of Saturday's Beijing Evening News, indicating that life was returning to normal for the capital's 13 million residents.

On June 13, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed the travel advisories to Hebei and Shanxi provinces, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Tianjin Municipality, leaving Beijing the only area on the Chinese mainland on the list.

"Information about the decline of SARS cases in these regions has been carefully reviewed by the WHO and suggests that SARS is no longer a potential threat to international travelers in these areas," a press release from the WHO said.

In addition, the WHO removed Guangdong, Hebei, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Tianjin from the list of areas with recent local transmissions.

China's Ministry of Health said in a press release that the WHO's decision suggested that China's anti-SARS efforts had made remarkable achievements.

The ministry also warned everybody to keep up the guard to prevent a resurgence of the disease.

"The lifting of the travel advisory is a reflection of the control measures which have been put in place by the Chinese authorities in the provinces," Henk Bekedam, WHO representative in China, told Xinhua.

Bekedam said he was confident China would remain vigilant in taking control measures against SARS, but warned, "If you don't do that, you'll get an outbreak again."

Meanwhile, the four regions, which were removed from the travel advisory list, showed optimism with prudence.

Dai Xianglong, mayor of Tianjin, said he welcomed the news. He had a list of plans to improve the city's public health system, including setting up a P3 laboratory (a laboratory to ensure the safety of staff in experimental research), restructure infectious disease hospitals, and intensify infectious disease prevention.

Officials in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China, showed similar excitement and caution.

"There are still so many things that we don't know about the SARS virus, so any negligence at present is dangerous," said Yang Chengwang, director of the region's health bureau.

Yang was preparing for the visit of the joint working team of the Ministry of Health and WHO.

To prevent any kind of potential infection, the region has started physical checks of all recovered SARS patients.

In Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, also in north China, a hospital where a dozen of medical staff were infected with SARS has reopened its clinic to the public. The smell of disinfectant in residential buildings has almost faded, and food stalls are seeing more visitors.

In Hebei Province, a massive public campaign against unsanitary habits is underway.

In Beijing, traffic jams had returned. Despite the fact that the city is still on the travel advisory list and many schools are still closed, it seems that Beijingers can't wait to enjoy normal life.

A local health official said that the number of SARS patients in Beijing was under 60 and had reached one of the criteria of the WHO, but the city must report no new SARS cases for 20 consecutive days.

"As long as Beijing continues all the efforts, I believe it will not be difficult to reach WHO's criteria," said the official.

Bekedam said, "Beijing is also doing very well at moment because the number of new cases is very low. They have put many very good measures in place."

But he said Beijing still had some questions to answer. "For many new cases, we don't know where they came from. We can't trace them back to other SARS patients.

"We know from the Beijing authorities that they are working on it. It's very important. When they finalize their work, they'll have a better understanding of the outbreak," he said.

"We'll complete the monitoring and provide our headquarters with the information required," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2003)