Residents of China have begun actively purchasing airline tickets and international travel packages after the country’s authorities significantly eased travel restrictions in that country, where the COVID-19 epidemic is ongoing.
Beijing announced that as of January 8, China will lift the quarantine for people entering the country. This is one of the most significant changes in the country’s policy to combat the coronavirus, following a series of other relaxations. After nearly three years of closed borders, people with work or study visas, as well as those seeking to visit family, will be allowed to enter China. It will also be easier for Chinese citizens to travel abroad, Chinese authorities announced on Tuesday. In addition, restrictions on the number of international flights have been lifted. Migration authorities have announced that they will resume accepting passport applications from Chinese citizens wishing to travel abroad on January 8.
Following these announcements, Chinese citizens began actively booking overseas travel, with tourism websites and airlines reporting a surge in traffic. But not all countries will allow Chinese tourists to enter freely. Japan, one of the most popular destinations for Chinese travelers, has announced that due to the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in China, all arrivals from that country must present a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival or undergo a seven-day quarantine. India also stated that arrivals from China (as well as some other countries) must present a negative COVID test result upon arrival, although this was announced before Beijing eased the restrictions.
Residents of China will be able to travel the world again. With the recent lifting of many quarantine restrictions, COVID has begun to spread rapidly in China. According to reports, hospitals are overcrowded, medicines are in short supply, and elderly people often die from the infection. The actual losses – the daily number of cases and deaths – are currently unknown because the official authorities have stopped releasing this data. Last week, Beijing reported 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 each day and several deaths. But the British company Airfinity, which collects and analyzes medical data, has calculated that China is registering more than a million cases of infection and 5,000 deaths a day.
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The strict “zero COVID” policy has been in place in one form or another for nearly three years, but in November, patience wore thin and rare protests against the president and government began in the country, possibly leading to a significant easing of restrictions. Until the travel rules were relaxed, it was strongly discouraged to travel abroad. According to the marketing company Dragon Trail International, the sale of outbound group and package tours was prohibited.
Within half an hour of Monday’s announcement that China’s borders would reopen, data from the tourism website Trip.com, cited in Chinese media, showed that searches for popular destinations had increased tenfold from last year. Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea have become the most popular destinations. According to Statista, before the pandemic, the number of tourists leaving China in 2019 was 155 million. In 2020, this number dropped to 20 million. Now, many Chinese people are hoping to visit their relatives and loved ones before January 22, the Chinese New Year.
But within China, reaction to the changes has been more mixed. “I am happy, but at the same time I have no words! If we’re still opening the borders, why did I have to endure all those daily COVID tests and lockdowns this year?” said Rachel Lu, who lives in Shanghai. According to her, Rachel lived in isolation for three months, but in the last few weeks almost all of her family members have been infected with COVID-19. She said her parents, grandparents, and her partner, who live in three different cities – Sian, Shanghai, and Hangzhou – all came down with a fever last week. Many people in the country are expressing concern on social media about the decision to open the borders despite the rapid increase in the number of infected people.