The hotline offers psychological counseling service in Korean and Chinese. [Photo provided to Chinaculture.org]

The novel coronavirus epidemic poses threat to people's physical health, and also psychological wellbeing. In early March, the China National Tourism Office in Seoul set up a psychological counseling hotline to ease the strain and fear among South Korea-based Chinese people.

Supported by nine licensed therapists, the hotline offers service during weekdays via cell phone, website (www.hwarin.org), WeChat, and Kakao Talk (a mobile messaging app in South Korea).

It has helped many people in the months-long battle against COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, with the service receiving nearly 200 phone calls, 70 messages on the website, 170 interactions through WeChat and 120 through Kakao Talk.