China has reopened to tourists. The hard part is getting there.
When the Chinese government announced last month that it would fully reopen its borders to foreign travelers, the news came as a jolt of relief to the millions of Chinese immigrants overseas who have been separated from their relatives since 2020. But a flood of visitors has yet to arrive. Many people are struggling to even book a plane ticket, stymied by high prices and a lack of direct flights. Liu Wei, 62, who lives in San Diego, recently spent hours at a local travel agency filling out a pile of paperwork to obtain a long-term visa to China. After searching for weeks for a flight, she bought a ticket for later this month to reunite with her sisters in the northeastern port city of Dalian. Round-trip business-class tickets from San Diego to Dalian cost between $6,000 and $10,000, she said, double what she typically paid before the pandemic. “I miss the choice and the freedom to go back and forth,” said Liu, who used to visit China every summer. “It’s been such a tragedy for us to not be able to go back to our own country.” For nearly three years, China maintained some of the harshest travel restrictions in the world, largely sealing off its borders to business travelers, tourists and relatives of Chinese nationals. The ruling Communist Party enforced a “zero Covid” policy, attempting to eradicate the coronavirus with prolonged lockdowns and mass testing. Overseas visitors who did manage to enter China were sometimes forced to quarantine for up to two months at their own expense. Some travelers even had to undergo anal swab Covid testing, triggering protests from governments outside China. China’s isolation had broad ripple effects. Universities shut down academic exchanges with the mainland, and multinational companies shifted their supply chains to other countries. The millions of Chinese immigrants overseas — in countries like the United States, Britain, Canada and Malaysia — suffered the heaviest emotional cost, unable to return home to care for sick parents or bury relatives who died during the pandemic. In December, China abruptly ended its “zero Covid” policy and soon began to ease border restrictions, removing quarantine requirements for international arrivals. The following month, business travelers were allowed to return on special visas. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-04-11/general/china-has-reopened-to-tourists-the-hard-part-is-getting-there
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China has reopened to tourists. The hard part is getting there.
When the Chinese government announced last month that it would fully reopen its borders to foreign travelers, the news came as a jolt of relief to the millions of Chinese immigrants overseas who have been separated from their relatives since 2020. But a flood of visitors has yet to arrive. Many people are struggling to even book a plane ticket, stymied by high prices and a lack of direct flights. Liu Wei, 62, who lives in San Diego, recently spent hours at a local travel agency filling out a pile of paperwork to obtain a long-term visa to China. After searching for weeks for a flight, she bought a ticket for later this month to reunite with her sisters in the northeastern port city of Dalian. Round-trip business-class tickets from San Diego to Dalian cost between $6,000 and $10,000, she said, double what she typically paid before the pandemic. “I miss the choice and the freedom to go back and forth,” said Liu, who used to visit China every summer. “It’s been such a tragedy for us to not be able to go back to our own country.” For nearly three years, China maintained some of the harshest travel restrictions in the world, largely sealing off its borders to business travelers, tourists and relatives of Chinese nationals. The ruling Communist Party enforced a “zero Covid” policy, attempting to eradicate the coronavirus with prolonged lockdowns and mass testing. Overseas visitors who did manage to enter China were sometimes forced to quarantine for up to two months at their own expense. Some travelers even had to undergo anal swab Covid testing, triggering protests from governments outside China. China’s isolation had broad ripple effects. Universities shut down academic exchanges with the mainland, and multinational companies shifted their supply chains to other countries. The millions of Chinese immigrants overseas — in countries like the United States, Britain, Canada and Malaysia — suffered the heaviest emotional cost, unable to return home to care for sick parents or bury relatives who died during the pandemic. In December, China abruptly ended its “zero Covid” policy and soon began to ease border restrictions, removing quarantine requirements for international arrivals. The following month, business travelers were allowed to return on special visas. Story has more.<br/>
