[Photo/Guangzhou Daily]

Guangzhou welcomed the opening of its first footbridge across the Pearl River on Friday (June 25), and set the bridge's name as the Haixin Bridge（海心桥）through a public vote.

The opening of the bridge provides a shortcut for travel from the Canton Tower to Huacheng Square（花城广场）and Ersha Island（二沙岛）, which only takes a walk about 500 meters across the Pearl River, a lot easier than by bus and metro previously.

An aerial view of Guangzhou's first footbridge across the Pearl River. [Photo/Guangzhou Daily]

The name Haixin, which means the heart of sea literally, represents that Guangzhou is an open and inclusive city. It also echoes with the Haixinsha Island（海心沙）which lies to the north of the bridge.

A view of the Haixin Bridge at night. [Photo/Guangzhou Daily]

The pedestrian bridge offers another sightseeing and leisure spot for the public, and is expected to become a new city landmark. People are required to make a reservation through the bridge's official WeChat account "海心桥" (ID: Haixinqiao2021), andpresent a green health code for visit.

For design details of the Haixin bridge, please check our previous article:

https://huacheng.gz-cmc.com/pages/2021/05/13/e2f946dcb8e240eb92f2598bbf62f6c5.html

Dine-in service resumed in Haizhu & Yuexiu

Haizhu and Yuexiu district allow the catering sector to resume dine-in service starting today, the local governments announced.

Food service staff should produce a negative COVID-19 test result issued within 72 hours before reopening restaurants for dine-in service, and the number of diners at each table is capped at 10.

Customers are required to scan the entry codes of restaurants and eateries to show their health status and keep a record of their movements.

So far, dine-in services are available in seven districts of Guangzhou, which also include Panyu, Tianhe, Huadu, Zengcheng and Huangpu.  

Hong Kong partially relaxes COVID-19 control

Tourists are seen at the Victoria Bay in Hong Kong, June 12, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

Hong Kong partially loosened its social distancing measures and shortened quarantine period for some foreigners starting Thursday (June 24) to July 7.

Under the new policies, eateries, bars, nightclubs, karaoke lounges and swimming pools see eased capacity limits and extended opening hours. They are able to resume 75 percent of or full operation capacity on the condition that staff and customers have received the COVID-19 vaccines.

Religious gatherings, weddings and local group tours also enjoy similar relaxation of control measures.

The local government also shortened the quarantine time fromtwo weeks to seven days for travelers from foreign countries, who need to have been fully vaccinated, test negative for COVID-19 and have antibodies in blood tests.

The arrangement will be first applied to those having Hong Kong residential status from June 30 and expanded to non-residents in a month.

Author & editor: Pauline Tai