• China has reopened its borders to travelers from outside.
• Many people who are ready to reunite with family have welcomed the move.
• The country’s reopening comes at the start of “chun yun”.

For the first time since placing limits on overseas travel in March 2020, China has reopened its borders to travelers from outside.

As the nation fights a surge in cases, there will be no longer be a requirement for incoming travelers to quarantine, marking a dramatic shift in the Covid policy.

They will still demand documentation of a PCR test that was negative and performed within 48 hours of the trip.

Many people who are ready to reunite with family have welcomed the move.

In the upcoming weeks, 400,000 individuals from Hong Kong are anticipated to fly into locations like Beijing and Xiamen, where there would be lengthy lines for flights.

On Sunday, double decker buses full of people arrived at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to board buses to the Guangdong province, including college students going home.

One man told the Media that he hadn’t seen his extended family in five years and that, after just purchasing a ticket to return to China, he was unable to contain his joy.

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A woman told news agency she had not seen her parents in years – despite one of them suffering from colon cancer – and said she was “so, so happy”.

The country’s reopening comes at the start of “chun yun”, the first period of Lunar New Year travel. Before the pandemic it was the largest annual worldwide migration of people returning home to spend time with family.

Two billion trips are expected to be made this Lunar New Year, double the number that travelled last year.

Li Hua, who travelled from the UK to China – where her family lives – for the festival said it had been “too long” since she had returned, “I’m so happy to be back, and breathe Chinese air. So happy, so happy”.

However, other people worry that expanding the borders will increase the spread of Covid-19.

At the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, some local bus drivers told the Media that they are concerned they might contract the virus from arriving travelers and that their employers should give them better protection.

China had one of the strongest Covid health rules over the past three years, which resulted in repeated lockdowns, frequent testing procedures, and a substantial impact on the country’s economy.

Following widespread demonstrations around the nation in response to a fire in a high-rise building in the Xinjiang province that left 10 people dead, the government recently reversed course on that policy.

Although authorities disputed this, many Chinese suspected that the long-standing Covid restrictions were a factor in the deaths.

Hospitals and crematoriums have reportedly been overcrowded since China abandoned the main tenets of its Covid zero policy, but the nation has stopped disclosing its case numbers and only announced two deaths on Saturday.

The Chinese government deleted more than 1,000 social media accounts on the same day for criticising how it handled the outbreak.

Many nations, including the UK, have implemented criteria for a negative COVID-19 test on people travelling from China, angering the Chinese government. This is due to the predicted spike in cases and transit out of China.

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