China announced it would end its quarantine requirement for international travellers on 8 January 2023 as the country relaxes its zero-covid policy for the first time since 2020.
This marks a significant move for inbound tourism as it will also remove passenger capacity restrictions on international flights from 8 January, assisting the recovery of air travel worldwide.
International travellers entering China will still have to complete PCR testing 48 hours before departure.
At the moment, visitors to China must undergo five days of mandatory quarantine at a government-approved facility and an additional three days of isolation.
According to China’s National Health Commission: ”Arrangements for overseas business travellers will improve and the necessary visas will also be facilitated”
The flip side to this is that many countries have imposed covid restrictions on arrivals from China due to the dropping of domestic pandemic policies which have seen local infection rates increase dramatically.
Australia, Spain, Italy, India, France, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Qatar, Morocco, the UK and US have set restrictions on travellers from China, stating a lack of information about virus variants and cases.
