China-Beijing-January 8, 2023
In a move to end her self-imposed isolation

After three years of restrictions imposed by China to combat the coronavirus, the Beijing authorities decided to cancel the mandatory quarantine for travelers arriving from abroad
This comes at a time when China is facing a new pandemic wave of covid-19
The lifting of the strict quarantine in specific hotels is the latest measure in these restrictions, which China abruptly lifted last month along with the majority of measures to combat this pandemic. This procedure has been imposed since March 2020, and every person from abroad is subject to it
The quarantine was originally three weeks, but then it was reduced to a week last summer, and then to five days in November
The announcement in December of the imminent lifting of the quarantine prompted the Chinese to plan travel abroad, which led to a huge surge in traffic on flight booking sites
However, the prospect of a heavy influx of Chinese tourists has prompted more than ten countries to impose infection diagnostic tests on travelers arriving from China, as the number of infections has increased significantly since the sudden cessation of the "zero covid" policy, which has been firmly applied for three years
Beijing condemned these travel restrictions imposed on its citizens as "unacceptable", although China has remained largely closed since 2020 to foreign tourists and students
At the conclusion of a crisis meeting of EU experts, member states were strongly "encouraged" to impose diagnostic tests on visitors from China. The Netherlands and Portugal on Friday joined the countries that require expats from China to present a negative covid-19 diagnostic test upon arrival
The spread of the epidemic in China is expected to worsen with the approach of the Chinese New Year holiday at the end of January, during which millions of people travel from megacities, where many infections are recorded, to the countryside to visit parents, who are often elderly and in a vulnerable position
China has taken measures to limit criticism about its chaotic course of abandoning the "zero covid"policy. China's Twitter-like Weibo service said it had recently blocked 1,120 accounts "due to violations against experts and academics."
And on Sunday at Beijing airport disappeared barriers that used to separate incoming international flights from domestic ones, as well as employees wearing protective suits that have been a staple of Chinese life since the imposition of the "zero covid" policy
Major Asian tourist destinations expect an influx of Chinese visitors