BEIJING (AFP) – China lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travelers on Sunday, ending almost three years of restriction to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The first people to arrive expressed relief at not having to undergo the grueling quarantines that were a fixture of life in zero-Covid China.
And in Hong Kong, where the border with mainland China was re-opened after years of closure, more than 400,000 people were set to travel north in the coming eight weeks.
Beijing last month began a dramatic dismantling of zero-Covid strategy that had enforced mandatory quarantines and punishing lockdowns.
The 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.
At Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, a woman surnamed Pang told AFP Sunday she was thrilled with the ease of travel.
“I think it’s really good that the policy has changed now,” she told AFP.
“It’s a necessary step I think. Covid has become normalized 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 travelers from the world’s most populous nation as it battles its worst-ever outbreak.
China has called travel curbs imposed by other countries “unacceptable”.
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.
One woman, there to greet a friend arriving from Hong Kong, said the first thing they’d do was grab a meal.
“It’s so great, we haven’t seen each other in so long,” Wu, 20, told AFP.
“They are studying over there, and we can meet each other directly in Beijing... It’s been a year,” she added.
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’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.