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This change from the level of maximum danger and for whose containment the most severe measures are required to one that provides for a more lax control, allows travelers entering the Asian giant from Sunday to do so without the mandatory quarantine imposed since March 2020.
China has reopened this Sunday to the rest of the world after almost three years of border closures by officially downgrading the covid category from level A to B and thus marking in practice the end of the 'zero covid policy'.
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This new situation comes just one day after the start of the 40-day period known in Chinese as "chunyun," the world's largest annual migration, which happens every year during the Lunar New Year, which this 2023 will fall between January 21 and 27, and is expected to bring tens of thousands of overseas Chinese nationals back to the country.
The first flight to take advantage of the paradigm shift was CZ312 linking the Canadian city of Toronto with Canton (south).
On Sunday, flight NZ289 from New Zealand landed at the Pudong International Airport. It was the first int'l inbound flight to arrive in Shanghai after China downgraded its management of COVID-19, meaning those on board would not be subject to quarantine https://t.co/bgEOXOcnLz pic.twitter.com/IDLAEn61L5
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 8, 2023
In Beijing, the flight that landed at 03.58 local time (19.58 GMT Saturday) was the first to arrive at Beijing Capital International Airport to a Terminal 3 that reopened section 3-E to cope with all flights scheduled for the day.
Since March 10, 2020, passengers arriving in Beijing had been required to enter the airport's Terminal 3-D and then spend a mandatory quarantine of several days at a designated hotel.
Not only those arriving in the country by air are benefiting from the paradigm shift in China's anti-pandemic policy.
Land border checkpoints have also witnessed today an influx of people taking advantage of the end of quarantines to enter the Asian giant.
Cross-border travel between China and Vietnam resumed Sunday at Hekou land port, with flocks of tourists grabbing their first chance to taste Viet food and culture. -globaltimes.cn/page pic.twitter.com/cV0jgedni8
— Zhang Meifang张美芳 (@CGMeifangZhang) January 8, 2023
At the Hekou checkpoint, which connects China with Vietnam, the border sees a return of commercial activity and many people flocked with flowers to the site to embrace family and friends for the first time since 2020, the officialist Global Times newspaper reported.
In Erenhot (north), a Chinese city located in the Gobi Desert and bordering Mongolia, the first group of citizens passed through the largest land checkpoint between the two countries after 1,016 days since the implementation of the strict 'zero covid' policy.
Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers also took advantage of the reopening of borders to enter China through the different methods available to them on Sunday, whether by sea, land or air.
Covid downgrade
GT on the spot: From Erenhot Port on the China-Mongolia border to Hekou Port on China-Vietnam border, Chinese land ports resume hustle and bustle as China reopened its borders on January 8. pic.twitter.com/Q3vflTmvhy
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) January 8, 2023
All within the downgrading of covid from a category A to a category B disease as of January 8, as announced by the National Health Commission of China last December.
The category change covers measures such as voluntary PCR testing on national territory, classified diagnostics and disease treatment according to disease severity.
In addition, covid will be removed from the management of infectious diseases requiring quarantine under Chinese law.
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