• The eastern city of Yiwu is the biggest global supplier of festive decorations, but production had ground to a halt during the peak production season
• But lockdowns continued in other parts of the country, including major tourist destinations in Hainan and Tibet

The Chinese city that provides the bulk of the world's Christmas products started to get back to business on Sunday after a 10-day lockdown that choked economic activity, but restrictions remained in place in some of the country's major tourist hotspots.

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Yiwu, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, is home to the world's largest small commodities market and a key hub for e-commerce and sourcing low-cost goods.

A city wide-lockdown that went into force on August 11 - in the middle of the peak production season for the many local Christmas decoration manufacturers and exporters - was officially lifted on Sunday, allowing businesses to resume operations.

It has been estimated that around two-thirds of the world's Christmas products are made in Yiwu.

Many local enterprises had expressed concern that the lockdown would prevent overseas clients from placing orders for fear of supply chain disruption.

The city has reported 710 confirmed cases this month.

Luo Xiaojun, Yiwu's deputy mayor, told a press briefing on Sunday that 805 enterprises had resumed operations and most employees had returned to work.

Most public venues, including markets, shops and leisure facilities have also resumed operations, but restaurants are still limited to offering takeaways.

The city is also offering cash rebates of up to 200,000 yuan (US$29,000) to businesses and 3,000 yuan to taxi drivers who were affected by the lockdown.

Before the pandemic, products made in Yiwu were exported to more than 200 countries and over 560,000 foreign buyers visited each year, according to official figures. More than 15,000 foreign businesspeople were also stationed in the city.

Elsewhere, major tourist centres, including the southern island of Hainan and parts of Tibet remained locked down as the country recorded 2,181 cases as of the end of Saturday, most of them asymptomatic.

A majority of the confirmed cases were in Hainan, with 1,065 positives, most of them asymptomatic, on Saturday. Sanya, the island's main centre for tourism, was the worst-affected area.

The island, which has seen thousands of cases this month, went into lockdown on August 6, leaving at least 150,000 tourists stranded.

Flights out of the island have since resumed and more than 42,000 tourists have now been allowed to leave Sanya, the city's deputy mayor Luo Dong told a press briefing on Sunday.

"Sanya is speeding up refurbishment of quarantine facilities and adding temporary quarantine waiting areas to alleviate the shortage of quarantine rooms and logistics crunch," Luo said, according to China News Service.

The provincial capital Haikou reopened on Friday.

In Tibet, another major tourist destination, the capital Lhasa and Shigatse city remained locked down, with hundreds of new cases being recorded in the region.

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