The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) first broke out in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and then rapidly spread to other regions, including Beijing, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia. The rapid spread was due in part to the country's inadequate early warning and control system and to the lack of knowledge about the mysterious infectious disease.

For China, the SARS epidemic constituted a greater threat than both the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the flood disaster of 1998. It was the first major test that China's new leadership had to cope with, an analyst said.

China's government has adopted a series of measures aimed at combating the contagious disease, which proved to be quite effective, said a professor from China's prestigious People's University.

The removal of incompetent officials, the quarantine of large numbers of suspect and probable SARS patients and the national mobilization to prevent the spread of the disease to China's vast rural areas were key to curbing mass infection, the professor told Xinhua.

"Governmental transparency increased, and the people's confidence in winning the SARS battle was restored", said the professor. (more) nnnn China's new leadership passes test presented by SARS epidemic: experts (2)

WHO experts have repeatedly praised China's central and local governments for the cooperation they provided.

C.K.Lee, one of the WHO experts on the joint task force inspecting China's provinces, told reporters that he appreciated the information shared by his Chinese colleagues and that he had learned a great deal of important information that was "pivotal for the study of the contagious disease".

SARS has infected 5,326 people and killed 347 on the Chinese mainland thus far. In Beijing alone, a total of 2,521 SARS cases and 191 deaths have been recorded, however, as of Tuesday, no new SARS cases have been reported for 13 consecutive days.

The WHO announced on June 13 that China's northern province of Hebei, Tianjin Municipality and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region had been removed from its "recommendation against non-essential travel to the areas" list.

Gao Qiang, Chinese Vice Minister of Health, stressed at the press conference during which the WHO announced its decision Tuesday, that the decision is an indication that China's efforts in fighting SARS have achieved a significant, but not easy, victory.

"China's efforts in fighting SARS have been recognized by the international community and by the WHO, and they mark the complete lifting of the travel advisory to any province or municipality on the Chinese mainland", said Gao.

"If you don't have the experience of living in China, you cannot even imagine what progress that China has made in the past month. It's a milestone in China's opening-up process", WHO expert James Maguire said.