China ends quarantine for overseas travellers

China lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travellers on Sunday, ending almost three years of self-imposed isolation even as the country battles a surge in Covid cases.

Beijing last month began a dramatic dismantling of a hardline zero-Covid strategy that had enforced mandatory quarantines and gruelling lockdowns.

The containment policy had a huge impact on the world's second-biggest economy and generated resentment throughout society that led to nationwide protests just before it was eased.

In the final unravelling of those rules, Sunday saw inbound travellers to China no longer required to quarantine, after almost three years of being subject to varying durations of mandatory isolation.

At Shanghai's Pudong International Airport, a woman surnamed Pang told AFP she was thrilled with the change to the rules.

"I think it's really good that the policy has changed now, it's really humane," she told AFP.

"It's a necessary step I think. Covid has become normalised now and after this hurdle everything will be smooth," she said.

Chinese people rushed to plan trips abroad after officials last month announced that quarantine would be dropped, sending inquiries on popular travel websites soaring.

But the expected surge in visitors has led more than a dozen countries to impose mandatory Covid tests on travellers from the world's most populous nation as it battles its worst-ever outbreak.

China has called travel curbs imposed by other countries "unacceptable", despite it continuing to largely block foreign tourists and international students from travelling to the country.

China's Covid outbreak is forecast to worsen as it enters the Lunar New Year holiday this month, during which millions are expected to travel from hard-hit megacities to the countryside to visit vulnerable older relatives.

And Beijing has moved to curb criticism of its chaotic path out of zero-Covid, with its Twitter-like Weibo service saying it had recently banned 1,120 accounts for "offences against experts and scholars".

At Beijing airport Sunday, barriers that once kept international and domestic arrivals apart were gone, as were the "big whites" -- staff in hazmat suits long a fixture of life in zero-Covid China.

And at Shanghai airport, one man surnamed Yang who was arriving from the United States said he had not been aware that the rules had changed.
"I had no idea," he told AFP.

"I'd consider myself extremely lucky if I only need to do quarantine for two days, turned out I don't have to do quarantine at all, and no paperwork, we just walked out like that, exactly like in the past," he added.

"I'm quite happy not needing to be in quarantine," another woman being picked up by her boyfriend who declined to give her name told AFP. "Who wants to be in quarantine? Nobody."

And across Asia, tourist hubs are preparing for a surge in Chinese visitors.

In Tokyo, caricaturist Masashi Higashitani was dusting off his Chinese language skills as he prepared for more holidaymakers.

While he was thrilled about China's reopening, he also admitted some apprehension.

"I wonder if an influx of too many of them might overwhelm our capacity. I'm also worried that we need to be more careful about anti-virus measures," he told AFP.

(AFP)