Overseas journalists invited to visit two schools in Shanghai last week described students as "taking the health crisis in their stride" and "undaunted" after classes resumed following more than two months of online study at home.

Forty-nine journalists from eight countries and regions－including Japan, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore－toured two middle schools on Thursday, the day after students in the third-year of junior high and the second-year of senior high returned to school. Their reports highlighted China's gradual return to school as some educational institutions in other countries hit by the novel coronavirus pneumonia pandemic weigh their own positions.

Students' mental well-being after staying at home since January was a focus of their interviews.

Shanghai High School principal Feng Zhigang told Agence France-Presse that resuming classes was the responsible thing to do, not only for the teenagers' studies, but also for their physical and mental health.