China reopens borders to foreign tourists for the first time since 2020

China said it will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in three years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, by re-issuing various types of visas from Wednesday, March 15.

The lifting of this latest border measure, which was intended to protect against COVID-19, comes after the authorities announced last month that they had defeated a significant increase in the number of infections recently.

It is expected that the support that the tourism sector will receive will help revive the $17 trillion economy, which last year recorded one of the slowest growth rates in nearly half a century.

The State Department said on Tuesday that areas in China that did not require a visa prior to the outbreak of the pandemic will return to the visa-free entry policy. This includes the southern tourist island of Hainan and cruise ships passing through the port of Shanghai.

Visa-free entry of foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau into Guangdong will also resume.

The ministry said that foreign travelers with visas issued before March 28, 2020 and still valid, can use them to enter China.

China, which withdrew its advice to its nationals not to travel abroad in January, added 40 more countries to the list of destinations allowed for regiments to travel to, bringing the total number to 60 countries.

According to the Chinese flight monitoring application, Flightmaster, international flights arriving and departing in the week that began on the sixth of March rose more than 350% compared to their level a year ago to about 2,500 flights, but this number is only equivalent to 17.4% of 2019 levels.