Classrooms reopen in Xinjiang with wishes, wariness as pandemic wanes

Eighteen-year-old Cao Jianing got up especially early on Monday morning, a day she has been looking forward to for weeks.

For the graduating senior high school student in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Monday's classes are different from those she has taken over the past two weeks: They have finally shifted from online to offline.

Monday marks the first day of offline schooling of the new semester for some 510,000 students like Cao in their final years of senior and junior high schools and vocational schools in Xinjiang, one of the first provincial regions across the country to reopen classrooms amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic.

Official data showed that no new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported for over 20 consecutive days in the region, prompting an acceleration in the resumption of life and work.

Cao's school, Urumqi No.1 Senior High School, is just across the street from her rented apartment, but the sudden COVID-19 outbreak had stranded her short daily school commuting, as local authorities postponed the opening of classrooms over public health concerns.

During the temporary shutdown, Cao studied at home to prepare for the gaokao, the annual college entrance exam. She took online classes and practice exams organized by the school. "I really missed the feeling of sitting in the classroom with my teacher and classmates around."