China ends quarantine requirements for inbound travellers
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China has lifted quarantine requirements for incoming travelers, ending nearly three years of self-isolation even as the country battles a surge in Covid-19 cases.
On Sunday, January 8, the first people to arrive expressed their relief that they did not have to undergo the grueling quarantines that were part of life in China without covid.
In Hong Kong, where the border with mainland China reopened after years of closure, more than 400,000 people traveled north in the next eight weeks.
Beijing last month began a dramatic rollback of a hardline zero-covid strategy that had imposed mandatory quarantines and punishable lockdowns.
On Sunday, January 8, the first people to arrive expressed their relief that they did not have to go through the harsh quarantines.
400,000 people traveled to the Hong Kong border in the next eight weeks
The policy had a major impact on the world’s second-largest economy and generated resentment throughout society that led to nationwide protests just before it was relaxed.
At Shanghai Pudong International Airport, a woman surnamed Pang told AFP on Sunday that she was delighted with the ease of travel.
“I think it’s very good that the policy has changed now, it’s very humane,” he told AFP.
I think it is a necessary step. The covid has normalized now and after this obstacle everything will be fine”, she said.
Families were finally reunited as China lifted quarantine requirements for incoming travelers, ending nearly three years of self-imposed isolation even as the country battles a spike in Covid cases.
A woman lifts a young relative dressed in a panda suit over a barrier to hug him as he arrives from a flight at the international arrivals area of Beijing Capital Airport after restrictions were lifted today.
The Chinese scrambled to plan trips abroad after officials announced last month that the lockdown would be lifted, prompting a surge in inquiries on popular travel websites.
But the expected surge in visitors has prompted more than a dozen countries to impose mandatory Covid tests on travelers from the world’s most populous nation as it battles its worst outbreak in history.
China called travel restrictions imposed by other countries “unacceptable,” even though it continues to largely block foreign tourists and international students from traveling to the country.
China’s Covid outbreak is forecast to worsen as the Lunar New Year holiday enters this month, during which millions of people are expected to travel from the hardest-hit megacities to the countryside to visit vulnerable elderly relatives.
The Chinese scrambled to plan trips abroad after officials announced last month that the lockdown would be lifted.
A man greets his girlfriend at the international arrivals hall of Beijing Capital International Airport as China lifts quarantine requirements for international arrivals
And Beijing has moved to curb criticism over its chaotic path away from Covid-zero, with its Twitter-like Weibo service saying it had recently banned 1,120 accounts for “offenses against experts and academics.”
At Beijing airport on Sunday, the barriers that once kept international and domestic arrivals separate were gone, as were the ‘great whites’: staff in hazmat suits long a fixture of life in China without covid.
A woman, who was there to greet a friend arriving from Hong Kong, said that the first thing they would do would be to have a meal.
“It’s great, we haven’t seen each other for a long time,” Wu, 20, told AFP.
“They are studying there and we can meet directly in Beijing… A year has passed,” he added.
At the Shanghai airport, a man surnamed Yang arriving from the United States said he was unaware the rules had changed.
“I had no idea,” he told AFP.
Passengers on a plane from China’s capital Beijing arrive and proceed to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing area at Narita International Airport in Narita, east of Tokyo.
Air passengers arrive from a flight from China at Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam
Air passengers arriving from China will need to show a negative Covid-19 test to enter the Netherlands from next week.
“I would consider myself extremely lucky if I only need to quarantine for two days, it turns out I don’t have to quarantine at all, and with no paperwork, we just go out like this, exactly like in the past.” she added.
“I’m quite happy that I don’t have to be in quarantine,” another woman who was picked up by her boyfriend who declined to give his name told AFP.
‘Who wants to be in quarantine? Nobody.’
In the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city of Hong Kong, visitors crossed the border as travel restrictions with the Chinese mainland were eased.
Hong Kong’s recession-hit economy is desperate to reconnect with its greatest source of growth, and families are looking forward to reunions during the Lunar New Year.
Official data showed that some 410,000 people in Hong Kong planned to travel north in the next two months, while some 7,000 people on the mainland planned to travel south on Sunday.
At the Lok Ma Chau checkpoint near Shenzhen, a mainland Chinese graduate student surnamed Zeng told AFP they were happy to cross without further restrictions.
“I’m happy as long as I don’t have to be in quarantine, it was so unbearable,” Zeng told AFP.