In a major announcement, China has announced it will remove quarantine for inbound travellers from * January 2023. This follows weeks of gradual easing on local restrictions, as China moves away from its “dyanmic zero” Covid-19 management policy.
With this change, inbound travellers will no longer need to quarantine or do any testing after arrival in China. This compares to the current policy of five days quarantine at a government facility and three days of home isolation, which will end on 8 Jan. Travellers will still need to produce a negative PCR test taken within 48h before departure. In addition, restrictions on the volume of international passenger flights will also be scrapped, paving the way for airlines to ramp up services.
In addition, outbound travel for Chinese nationals will also be “gradually resumed”. Chinese nationals haven’t totally banned from outbound travel, but they’ve had to jump through various hoops to be able to leave the country. “Gradually resumed” could mean some limits on outbound groups perhaps, but regardless we’re likely to see more and more Chinese tourists further into 2023. With the removal of flight caps, I’m sure many airlines will be seeking to tap the pent-up Chinese market.
It’s not a ‘free for all’ in terms of travel in and out of China, though or even a reversion to pre-Covid border controls. The Chinese authorities have stated processes for foreigners wishing to enter China for work and business purposes will be improved and visas will be facilitated for these purposes. There’s no word yet on whether tourists will be allowed in, or when this will happen. I’m sure we’ll see continued easing of requirements deeper into 2023, but I won’t be surprised if the level of inbound travellers remains relatively low for the foreseeable future.
My thoughts on this announcement
China isn’t particularly high on my travel to-do list at this point, not with the massive Covid-19 wave they’re going through currently and other non-Covid related reasons. In any case, airfare to and from China will likely be extremely elevated for much of 2023, as Chinese resume travelling en masse and a likely gradual return of corporate travellers to China. Indeed, there’s already reports of the ridiculous prices for SIA’s Beijing flights which will resume on 30 Dec. With the removal of restrictions on flight volume, this situation should improve in time, but I’d expect it to take several months to stabilise. Chinese New Year being in late-Jan, just a couple of weeks after the removal of quarantine on arrival, will likely keep demand extremely high in the coming weeks.
One interesting observation I had from the announcement is that testing requirements will be limited to just a pre-departure PCR test. This is quite a contrast to Hong Kong, which still requires pre-departure, arrival and day 2 PCR testing, and daily self-reporting rapid antigen testing for the first five days. Hong Kong’s current testing requirements are pretty onerous, especially in contrast to China’s new rules starting 8 Jan. I’m quite interested to see if Hong Kong will follow suit and start to remove some of the testing requirements. Personally, I see myself going to Hong Kong sooner than China, and removing some of the testing requirements would give me extra impetus to plan a quick getaway to HK.
Update 28/12/2022 3PM: As I expected, per various media ( Reuters link here) Hong Kong will remove arrival testing. The vaccine pass will also be scrapped. A formal announcement is expected shortly.
On the outbound side of things, we can expect to see Chinese tourists start to reappear in large numbers at all the global tourists hotspots soon. I think many would agree the travel experience has been more pleasant with the lack of Chinese tourists around these last couple of years. In a similar vein, I can’t say I’m unhappy that Japan will require arrivals from China to take on-arrival tests.
Conclusion
In a pretty significant move, China will remove quarantine for inbound travellers from * January 2023. China will also facilitate arrangements and visas for foreigners heading there for work and business purposes, though tourism is still a question mark at this point. Caps on the volume of flights will be consigned to the past as well. Chinese nationals will also be allowed to “gradually resume” outbound travel from China.
China’s border is open once again, somewhat, after being shut for nearly three years as the pandemic unfolded.
