Since I have to cancel my travel plans from the epidemic of Coronavirus (Covid-19), I collect list of WHSs that are affected from the outbreak.

- Beijing Imperial Palace : Close for indefinite period
- Imperial Tombs : Close for indefinite period
- Lijiang : All tourist facilities shut down for 18 days
- Longmen Grottoes : Closed for 1 month
- Yungang Grottoes : Closed for 1 month
- Mogao Caves : Closed for 1 month
- Silk Routes : Many sights closed for 1 month
- Great Wall : Close famous Badaling section
- Lushan National Park : Close by Jiangxi Province Authority
- Potala : Close
- Huangshan : Close
- Hangzhou West Lake : Close certain areas for 36 days
- Venice : Cancel Carnival, many sights close
- Milan's Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie : Close
- Savoy Palaces : Close
- Aquileia : Close Basilica's interior
- Padua's Botanic Garden : Close
- Vicenza : All museums and Palladian Villas are closed
- Changdeokgung : Stop guided tour service (only garden is opened)
- Jongmyo : Stop guided tour service

Thanks, Durian. I was going to start a thread about this tonight, glad you did.

My plans have had me arriving in China in October. Three or four weeks ago my thoughts were: "seven months until then, either the situation will have stabilized by then, or the virus will have gone global, in which case travel shouldn't make much difference"

Now, of course, the second outcome seems to have arrived in a rapid manner.

In around 10-14 days I was supposed to arrive in Milan (coming from Germany/Switz.) and then visit all the WHS between there and Venice (continuing on into Eastern Europe.) Now that doesn't seem like a good idea, and I am trying to come up with another plan. I would still like to see some Italian WHS, especially Venice, and this trip will probably be my only opportunity. Right now, I am thinking about going straight through from Switzerland to Florence by rail, skipping the all Sites in Lombardy (I wasn't going to be able get a ticket to the Last Supper anyway) and traveling to Venice mostly along the Adriatic coast.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

In fact, my plans are being reworked more slowly than I would like because I have been dealing with a case of "regular flu" for the past week. For a time, I thought I might have had Covid-19 myself, even though I had not been very close to any outbreak clusters recently. However, I now belive that is not the case, which is a relief as I would not want to be responsible for spreading it around.

Then the case of China in October will have to be reconsidered as well....

Here's wishing all of you good health!

This is a good topic. I'm also wondering how many of us hard core travellers are going to cancel their travel plans or reduce travelling because of COVID, in the near future? And I don't mean only China, Iran, Italy or other evident countries, but in general.

I'm asking because in the end of April I have a time frame for the only longer trip for this year. Now I'm not sure any more if it would be rational to reserve tickets.

Isn't everything in China closed? As far as I heard nobody is going out for more than necessities (work, groceries) so I doubt anyone is even remotely interested to visit a touristy place at the moment.

I've had lots or airlines in South Asia adjust their plans (read: cancel) due to the lower demand of travelers as an side effect of no Chinese traveling anymore, not just flight to/from China.

That is my understanding as well, though presumably the closures are not at the same scale all around such a large country.

A bigger concern for me is onward travel bans to other countries for visitors or residents of China. I know of at least one country I wanted to visit later on that has essentially closed its borders, and early on in the outbreak there were some that would only let you in if you had spent 14 days in an unaffected country after leaving China (good luck with that!)

Edit: Looks like Nan got back home just in time!

Come to Holland!


I am having my Central Africa trip scheduled in 3 weeks, no doubts about going.

I had plans to visit Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong end of March but my flight already got cancelled. Another plan to visit Shennongjia (in Hubei) in May is definitely not pushing through. I was thinking of finishing my remaining 10 sites in China this year. I am pushing it to next year.

My plan to visit northern Italy by October is cancelled too. Same as Japan planned trip after Olympics is cancelled.

So most likely I will just need to content on 27 visited sites for this year - all of these done during Chinese New Year time. I was supposed to go back to Beijing after that but my flight got cancelled. There was no other available trip so I ended up buying tix to my hometown in the Philippines. Now, i am still here working remotely as PH government has a ban for Filipinos to travel to China.

Why did you cancel this, may I ask? October is a long time away and northern Italy is large.

elsslots
I was planning together with my parents (already above 60 and asthmatic). So just a precaution.

Ah, I understand.

On the other hand - this is also a period when good deals can be bought. I just received some new offers (an impromptu sale?) from KLM, advertising for example 7 days on Curacao including flight & hotel for 565 EUR. Or 349 EUR for a flight to New York from Amsterdam.

Good for you, and a shrewd choice... you probably picked the place and time least likely to have a problem with this issue. Have a great trip, you should see some beautiful birds, maybe even Picathartes oreas. :-)

Thanks! I am more a mammal person, but this is really a honorary "mammal"

There is no escape! - https://nltimes.nl/2020/02/27/coronavirus-netherlands-first-positive-case-covid-19-reported

There is gonna be a case in almost every country before March, just today the first in New Zealand and Nigeria.

Wondering if the WHC will meet in Fuzhou this year.

At some point this will be so widespread that I can't see what point it will make to ban or restrict travel. Right now everyone is in panic mode trying to forestall the inevitable. I don't envy anyone caught up in areas now where travel is restricted or where sites they had planned on visiting are closed. Hope everyone stays healthy.