Travelers will be able to cross between South Korea and China by sea from next week after a roughly three-year suspension of operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced on Wednesday that passenger transport on 15 international routes linking South Korea’s Incheon, Pyeongtaek and Gunsan ports with eleven Chinese ports will normalize from Monday.

The actual resumption of service, however, may take time given that preparations, such as crew staffing, are not expected to be completed immediately.

The oceans ministry plans to conduct a special safety inspection of 15 passenger ships to be fully ready for the resumption of operations.

The latest move comes after the ministry normalized passenger ship operations between the Port of Donghae and Russia’s Port of Vladivostok last August and between Busan Port and Japan’s Fukuoka and Osaka last October.