Traffic jams in downtown Beijing, busy subway stations and bustling shopping malls indicated the city was returning to business as normal on Tuesday, amid the relaxed COVID-19 measures.

Vehicles crawled on all major city roads between 7 am and 9 am, a scene rarely witnessed since COVID-19 response measures were optimized in early December.

Data from the Beijing Transportation Operations Coordination Center indicated a road network traffic index of 8.15, meaning "serious congestion". It lasted for about an hour.

Lin Fan, who took more than 40 minutes to reach his workplace on Tuesday, said it was the first time traffic jams in the city didn't cause frustration. "I felt a sense of relief to see so many people outdoors, getting their lives back," he said.

According to the transportation center, 2.41 million commuter trips were recorded in subway stations by 9 am on Tuesday, an increase of 28 percent compared with that of last week. The number of bus trips reached 970,000, an increase of 17 percent.

Commercial establishments and tourism businesses in the city showed promising numbers as well.