(Beijing) China is lifting a mandatory quarantine for travelers from overseas on Sunday, ending three years of self-imposed isolation just as it faces a spike in COVID-19 cases at home.
After three years of some of the most draconian restrictions in the world, which weighed on its economy and ended up sparking protests across the country, China last month abruptly lifted most of its measures to fight the pandemic.
Last act of this dismantling: the end on Sunday of strict quarantines in dedicated hotels to which, since March 2020, all people arriving from abroad have been required to submit.
Initially three weeks, the duration of this quarantine had already been reduced to one week last summer, then to five days in November.
The announcement in December of the end of the quarantine prompted the Chinese to make many plans to travel abroad, with a dramatic increase in traffic on booking sites.
But the prospect of a massive influx of Chinese tourists has prompted more than a dozen countries to impose screening tests on travelers from China, where the number of contaminations has exploded since the abrupt end of the “zero COVID” policy. -19” relentlessly carried out for three years.
The outbreak is expected to worsen ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday in late January, when millions are expected to leave hard-hit megacities for the countryside to visit their often elderly relatives. and vulnerable.
Beijing has condemned the travel restrictions imposed on its nationals as “unacceptable”, although China itself has remained largely closed since 2020 to foreign tourists and international students.
Following a crisis meeting of European Union experts on Wednesday, member states were “strongly encouraged” to screen visitors from the world’s most populous country. And the Netherlands and Portugal on Friday became the latest countries to require passengers arriving from China to present a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival.
“Finally let me go! »
Zhang Khai, 28, told AFP that he plans to return to Japan or South Korea despite the mandatory tests. “I am very happy, I can finally let myself go,” he rejoices.
Friends of his, he says, have already landed in Japan and taken the PCR tests. A “small formality”, according to him.
Major tourist destinations in Asia are expecting an influx of Chinese visitors.
In Seoul, Son Kyung-rak is already preparing to welcome a tide of Chinese travellers. “We are looking to hire and increase inventory,” he says at his pancake stand in the Myeongdong district. “Chinese tourists are our first customers, the more the merrier”.
In Tokyo, cartoonist Masashi Higashitani is brushing up on his knowledge of Mandarin in anticipation of the return of his Chinese clients.
But although impatient to find these tourists, he said he “also fears that we have to be more careful about anti-virus measures”.
In Hong Kong, strict travel restrictions to and from the rest of China will also be eased on Sunday.
Hong Kong’s recession-hit economy is desperate to return to growth, and families are eagerly awaiting Chinese New Year reunions.
More than 280,000 Hong Kongers registered to travel to the mainland less than a day after the new rules were announced. An initial quota of at least 60,000 travelers per day in each direction has been instituted.
Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific will double the number of flights to mainland China.