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China Travel Restrictions & Travel Advisory (Updated March 7, 2024)

Updates March 7th, 2024 : Travelers from the following countries could enjoy visa-free entry to China for tourism, business, transit, or visiting friends and relatives. 

• From December 1st, 2023, to November 30th, 2024: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain.
• From March 14th to November 30th, 2024: Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.
• Singapore, Brunei
• Malaysia (from December 1st, 2023 to November 30th, 2024)

If you want to arrange a private tour, even tentatively, simply contact us . 

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• What Ways to Enter China
• Do I Still Need a PCR Test to Enter China
• Hong Kong/Macau Travel Restriction

International Flights to China

What to expect when traveling in china, best times to travel to china, 8 ways to enter china: all open now.

Since China has fully permitted visa applications, there are now several ways to enter the country.

If you still hold a valid Chinese visa (any type including a tourist visa, 10-year visa, etc.), you can use it to enter China.

If you don't have a Chinese visa or your visa has expired, you can apply for a new one. All visas can now be applied for, including tourist visas, business visas, work visas, and so on. (International visitors can apply for a tourist visa to the Chinese Mainland in Hong Kong.)

For the documents required for a visa application, you can refer to the information given by a Chinese embassy/consulate . Please submit your application at least two months in advance.

To apply for a tourist visa (L visa), you will be asked to provide an invitation letter issued by a Chinese travel agency or individual or round-trip air tickets and hotel bookings.

When booking a private tour with us, we can provide you with an invitation letter, which is one more thing we do to make your travel more convenient, giving you more flexibility with your air tickets and hotel bookings.

Now it is very easy to apply for a visa . You can easily apply by yourself without an intermediary. The following is how one of our clients successfully applied for a Chinese tourist visa:

• First, fill out the form at the China Online Visa Application website ;
• Second, make an appointment on this website to submit your visa materials on Appointment for Visa Application Submission website ;
• Third, take the required documents to the embassy to submit;
• Finally, you will get a return receipt if your documents are qualified.

Usually, you will get your visa after 7 working days. The application fee is about USD185 for US citizens.

Q: What if my passport expires but my visa doesn't?

A: You can travel to China on the expired passport containing valid Chinese visa in combination with the new passport, provided that the identity information (name, date of birth, gender, nationality) on both passport identical.

If there is a change to any of the above details, you must apply for a new visa.

2. 144-Hour Visa-Free Transit Policy

If you do not apply for a Chinese visa, you may still have the opportunity to visit these areas of China visa free: the Shanghai area (including Suzhou, Hangzhou, etc.), the Beijing area (with Tianjin and Hebei), the Guangzhou area (Shenzhen, Zhuhai, etc.), and more. Take advantage of the 6-day visa-free entitlements.

Find out if you could use the 144-hour visa-free transit policy with our information on China's 144-hour Visa-Free Policy (Eligible Entry/Exit Ports, Applicable Countries, Documents to be Prepared...)

You can also obtain entry and exit control policies through the 24-hour hotline of the National Immigration Administration:

• Beijing: 0086 (+86)-10-12367
• Shanghai: 0086 (+86)-21-12367
• Guangzhou: 0086 (+86)-20-12367

Quick Test: Will My Route Qualify for China 72/144-Hour Visa-Free Transit?

1. I will depart from (only applies to direct or connected flight):

2. I will arrive in China at [city], [airport / railway station / port].

3. My arrival date is...

4. I will leave for [country/region] from China (the bounding destination on the air ticket):

5. My departure date is...

6. My nationality is...

8. I have Chinese visa refusal stamps in my passport.

You qualify to enjoy China's 72-hour visa-free policy.

You qualify to enjoy China's 144-hour visa-free policy.

You don't qualify to enjoy China's 72-hour or 144-hour visa-free policy.

Reason you don't qualify:

• You must be in transit to a third country or region.
• You must leave the city area (prefecture or municipality) after the 72/144 hours (the 72/144-hour limit is calculated starting from 00:00 on the day after arrival, i.e. 24:00 on the arrival date).
• Your passport must be valid for more than 3 months at the time of entry into China.
• Your passport nationality is not eligible for the 72/144-hour visa exemption program.
• You have Chinese visa refusal stamps in your passport.

3. Port Visas (Landing Visas)

If you don't have time to get a visa, or if you find it cumbersome to apply for a tourist visa, you could consider traveling to China through a port visa.

Port visas can be applied for a group at least including 2 people. You need to enter the country within 15 days after you get your entry permit. The port visa allows a stay period of 1 to 2 months.

Applicable ports include Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Guilin, Xi'an, Chengdu, etc.

Note: Tourists from America are not granted a port visa in Shanghai.

Book your China trip with us and we can help you apply for a port visa.

4. Visa Exemption for ASEAN Tour Groups to Guilin

In addition, tour groups from ASEAN member countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Myanmar, Brunei, and the Philippines, can visit Guilin for 144 hours without visas as long as they meet the visa-free transit policy requirements.

5. Shanghai Visa-Free Policy for Cruise Groups

Shanghai has a 15-day visa-free policy for foreign tourist groups entering China via a cruise. You must arrive and depart on the same cruise and be received by a Chinese travel agent at the Shanghai Cruise Terminal (or Wusong Passenger Center).

6. Hainan Visa-Free Access

No visa is required for staying on Hainan Island for up to 30 days for ordinary passport holders from 59 countries. Groups and individual tourists must book a tour through an accredited travel agency.

Find out whether you qualify for the policy here .

7. Visa Exemption for the Pearl River Delta Area

International travelers from Hong Kong or Macau are able to visit the Pearl River Delta area (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, etc.) visa-free as long as they go with a registered tour provider, such as us.

8. APEC Cards

If you hold a valid APEC business travel card, you can simply enter China with the card without applying for a visa.

Travelers who hold a valid APEC business travel card can stay in China for up to 60 days.

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Do I Still Need a PCR Test or Antigen Self-Test to Enter China

No. Starting from August 30, all travelers entering China will no longer need to undergo any COVID-19 testing. You do not need to submit any test results for COVID-19 before departure.

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Hong Kong / Macau Travel Restriction

Hong kong entry requirements.

Travelers from any region bound for Hong Kong will no longer need to take pre-flight COVID-19 tests (no PCR test, no RAT test) from April 1.

There is also no need for any tests when traveling from Hong Kong to the Chinese Mainland. Hong Kong could be a good gateway for your China trip. See suggestions on China Itineraries from Hong Kong (from 1 Week to 3 Weeks).

Direct high-speed trains from Guangzhou and Shenzhen to Hong Kong are available now. In preparation for the Canton Fair, it is expected that direct high-speed ferries will be launched from Guangzhou Pazhou Port to Hong Kong's airport in mid-April.

• 10 Top China Tours from Hong Kong

Macau Entry Requirement

From August 30, travelers from any region bound for Macau will no longer need to take pre-flight COVID-19 tests (no PCR test, no RAT test).

There is also no need for any tests when traveling from Macau to the Chinese Mainland.

Inbound and outbound international flights in the week beginning March 6th rose by more than 350% compared with a year earlier, to nearly 2,500 flights, according to Chinese flight tracking data from APP Flight Master.

At present, there are one or two direct flights a week from New York to Shanghai, Los Angeles to Beijing, Seattle to Shanghai, London to Guangzhou, etc.

There are also many flight options with stopovers that are more frequent and affordable. Testing at transit airports is now not required!

The Coronavirus outbreak in China has subsided. China looks like it did in 2019 again. No special measures (like PCR tests or health codes) are required when traveling around China. All attractions are open as normal.

Wearing a mask is not mandatory when traveling. In hotels, masks are off for the most part. But in some crowded places, such as airports or subway stations, many people still wear masks.

Weather-wise, the best times to visit China are spring (April–May) and autumn (September–October), when most of the popular places have their most tourism-friendly weather, except for the "golden weeks" — the first week of May and of October — when most attractions are flooded with Chinese tourists.

If you are looking for smaller crowds, favorable prices, and still good weather, you should consider March and April or September.

Tourism in cultural and historical destinations like Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an is hardly affected by weather conditions. They are suitable to be visited all year round.

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Tour China with Us

We've been building our team for over 20 years. Even over the past three years we have continued, serving over 10,000 expats with China tours and getting a lot of praise (see TripAdvisor ).

We are based in China and can show you the characteristics and charm of China from a unique perspective. Just contact us to create your China trip .

Our consultants will listen to and answer your inquiries carefully and prepare the best plan for you.

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China Fully Reopens to Travelers After Three Years of Closures

Hoping to boost its tourism industry, the country is now issuing all types of visas

Daily Correspondent

After three years of closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, China is fully reopening its borders to visitors.

The nation is now issuing visas of all types. It is also resuming visa-free entry for destinations that did not require visas before the pandemic, such as Hainan island and cruise ships in Shanghai . Tourists with unexpired multi-year visas issued before March 28, 2020 are also able to enter.

China’s foreign ministry announced the full reopening in a  statement posted online last week. The announcement didn’t say whether the government will require travelers to provide vaccination cards or negative Covid-19 tests to enter the country.

Since the pandemic, China has been one of the last major countries to fully reopen, according to the  Associated Press ’ Zen Soo. The nation had implemented strict zero-Covid policies that involved daily testing and sudden lockdowns that eventually led to  rare pushback from residents.

In December, Chinese leaders  began easing the harsh rules, going on to drop quarantine requirements for international travelers in January. In February, the government declared it had  achieved victory over the virus.

How many Covid-19 cases—and deaths—have occurred in China remains unclear, as the World Health Organization argues that the country  has been underrepresenting the virus’ true toll.

In the near future, travel industry experts don't anticipate that large numbers of tourists will begin flooding into China, or that increased tourism will help the country’s economy in a significant way. As Reuters ’ Joe Cash and Sophie Yu report, tourism made up less than 1 percent of China’s gross domestic product in 2019.

China’s tourism businesses will also face challenges amid the reopening, as they must now rehire the millions of employees they laid off during the pandemic.

“We are not prepared to serve a rising number of tourists since we are short of employees,” says Zheng Honggang, CEO of Shanghai-based Kate Travel, to the  South China Morning Post ’s Daniel Ren. “The pace of recovery will turn out to be slow.”

Travel to China from the United States may also be slow to rebound due to increasingly  strained relations between the two nations. In a March 10 travel advisory , the U.S. State Department encouraged citizens to reconsider travel to China, citing “arbitrary enforcement of local laws” and a “risk of wrongful detentions.” Those who do decide to visit should keep a low profile, stay away from demonstrations and avoid taking photographs of police or protesters without permission, the State Department warned.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong—which is a special administrative region in China—is also trying to find innovative strategies to boost its travel industry, which had been in decline since before the pandemic. Last month, the government announced that it will be giving away  500,000 free flights over the course of several months.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.

China to reopen its borders to tourists for 1st time in 3 years

One of the last major countries to drop tourism restrictions.

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China will reopen its borders to tourists and resume issuing all visas on Wednesday as it tries to revive tourism and its economy following a three-year halt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

China is one of the last major countries to reopen its borders to tourists. The announcement on Tuesday came after it declared a "decisive victory" over COVID-19 in February.

All types of visas will resume from Wednesday. Visa-free entry also will resume at destinations such as Hainan island as well as for cruise ships entering Shanghai that had no visa requirement before COVID-19.

Foreigners holding visas issued before March 28, 2020, that are still valid will be allowed to enter China. Visa-free entry will resume for foreigners entering Guangdong in southern China from Hong Kong and Macao.

Vaccine, COVID rules unclear

The notice didn't specify whether vaccination certificates or negative COVID-19 tests would be required, but Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday that China had "optimized measures for remote testing of people coming to China from relevant countries," allowing pre-boarding antigen testing instead of nucleic acid testing.

"All these have been well implemented, and the epidemic risk is generally controllable," Wang said at a daily briefing.

The move would "further facilitate the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel," according to the notice posted on the websites of numerous Chinese missions and embassies.

China had stuck to a harsh "zero-COVID" strategy involving sudden lockdowns and daily COVID-19 testing to try to stop the virus before abandoning most aspects of the policy in December amid growing opposition.

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The relaxation of visa rules follows China's approval of outbound group tours for Chinese citizens, the results of which have been positive, and the overall improvement in pandemic conditions, Wang said.

"China will continue to make better arrangements for the safe, healthy and orderly movement of Chinese and foreign personnel on the basis of scientific assessments and in light of the situation," he said. "We also hope that all parties will join China in creating favourable conditions for cross-border exchanges."

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China to reopen to foreign tourists for first time since Covid crisis

Authorities will resume issuing all visas after closing borders to international holidaymakers in 2020

China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the Covid pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued.

The removal of this last cross-border control measure on Wednesday comes after authorities declared victory over the virus last month.

Tourist industry insiders do not expect a large influx of visitors in the near future or significant boost to the economy. In 2019, international tourism receipts accounted for just 0.9% of China’s gross domestic product.

But the resumption of visa issuance for tourists marks a broader push by Beijing to normalise two-way travel between China and the world, having withdrawn its advisory to citizens against foreign travel in January.

Areas in China that did not require visas before the pandemic would revert to visa-free entry, the foreign ministry said. This would include the southern tourist island of Hainan, a longtime favourite destination among Russians, as well as cruise ships passing through Shanghai port.

Visa-free entry for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau to China’s most prosperous province, Guangdong, will also resume, a boon particularly to luxury hotels that are popular among international business travellers.

The chair of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in China, Vaughn Barber, said: “The announcement that China will resume issuing nearly all type of visas for foreigners is positive for Australian businesses, whose executives would like to travel to here to visit their China-based teams, customers and suppliers and to explore new business opportunities in the mainland market.”

Chinese events open to foreign visitors, such as the development forum in Beijing this month and the Shanghai auto show in April, are gradually resuming. The quadrennial Asian Games will also take place in the eastern city of Hangzhou in September after being postponed last year.

But prospective visitors may not immediately arrive in droves. Unfavourable views of China among western democracies have hardened amid concerns over human rights and Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy, as well as suspicions surrounding handling of Covid, according to a global survey by the Pew Research Center in September.

“In terms of tourism, China is no longer a hotspot destination,” said an executive at China International Travel Services in Beijing, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“Commercially, the wish of foreigners to run events in China also decreased after Covid, because too many things here are impacted by politics, which has scared them off.”

In a further relaxation of controls on outbound tourism, China added 40 countries to its list for which group tours are allowed, bringing the total to 60.

But the list still excludes Japan, South Korea, Australia and the US. Tensions between those countries deepened as Washington faced off with Beijing over issues from Russia and Ukraine to Chinese military presence in the South China Sea.

“It’s common to use tourist visas to come to China on business but I don’t know how enthusiastic institutional investors will be to do so, after all the drumbeat of scary news,” said Duncan Clark, the founder of BDA, a Beijing-based investment consultancy.

In 2022, just 115.7m cross-border trips were made in and out of China, with foreigners accounting for about 4.5m.

By contrast, China logged 670m overall trips in 2019 before Covid, with foreigners accounting for 97.7m.

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China has reopened its borders to tourists after three years of COVID-19 closure

The Associated Press

Travelers wearing face masks with their luggage head to the immigration counter at the departure hall at Lok Ma Chau station following the reopening of crossing border with mainland China, in Hong Kong, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Bertha Wang/AP hide caption

Travelers wearing face masks with their luggage head to the immigration counter at the departure hall at Lok Ma Chau station following the reopening of crossing border with mainland China, in Hong Kong, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.

After years of separation from his wife in mainland China, Hong Kong resident Cheung Seng-bun made sure to be among the first in line following the reopening Sunday of border crossing points.

The ability of residents of the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city to cross over is one of the most visible signs of China's easing of border restrictions imposed almost three years ago, with travelers arriving from abroad no longer required to undergo expensive and time-consuming quarantines.

That comes even as the virus continues to spread in China amid what critics say is a lack of transparency from Beijing.

"I'm hurrying to get back to her," Cheung, lugging a heavy suitcase, said as he prepared to cross at Lok Ma Chau station, which was steadily filling with eager travelers.

China grapples with COVID surge that may be the worst since the pandemic began

Those crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China, however, are still required to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 48 hours — a measure China has protested when imposed by other countries.

Hong Kong has been hit hard by the virus, and its land and sea border checkpoints with the mainland have been largely closed for almost three years. Despite the risk of new infections, the reopening that will allow tens of thousands of people who have made prior online bookings to cross each day is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong's tourism and retail sectors.

On a visit to the station Sunday morning, Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee said the sides would continue to expand the number of crossing points from the current seven to the full 14.

"The goal is to get back as quickly as possible to the pre-epidemic normal life," Lee told reporters. "We want to get cooperation between the two sides back on track."

Communist Party newspaper Global Times quoted Tan Luming, a port official in Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong, saying about 200 passengers were expected to take the ferry to Hong Kong, while another 700 were due to travel in the other direction, on the first day of reopening. Tan said a steady increase in passenger numbers is expected over coming days.

"I stayed up all night and got up at 4 a.m. as I'm so excited to return to the mainland to see my 80-year-old mother," a Hong Kong woman identified only by her surname, Cheung, said on arrival at Shenzhen, where she was presented with "roses and health kits," the paper said.

Hong Kong media reports said around 300,000 travel bookings from the city to mainland China have already been made, with a daily quota of 60,000.

Limited ferry service also was restored from China's Fujian province to the Taiwanese-controlled island of Kinmen just off the Chinese coast.

The border crossing with Russia at Suifenhe in the far northern province of Heilongjiang also resumed normal operations, just in time for the opening of the ice festival in the capital of Harbin, a major tourism draw.

And at Ruili, on the border with Myanmar, normal operations were resumed after 1,012 days of full or partial closure in response to repeated outbreaks blamed partly on visitors from China's neighbor.

So far, only a fraction of the previous number of international flights are arriving at major Chinese airports.

Beijing's main Capital International Airport was expecting eight flights from overseas on Sunday. Shanghai, China's largest city, received its first international flight under the new policy at 6:30 a.m. with only a trickle of others to follow.

Since March 2020, all international passenger flights bound for Beijing have been diverted to designated first points of entry into China. Passengers were required to quarantine up to three weeks.

"I've been under isolated quarantine for six times in different cities (in mainland China)," said Ivan Tang, a Hong Kong business traveler. "They were not easy experiences."

Ming Guanghe, a Chinese living in Singapore, said it had been difficult both to book a ticket and find somewhere to take a PCR test. Quarantine measures and uncertainty about outbreaks had kept him away from home, Ming said.

Shanghai announced it would again start issuing regular passports to Chinese for foreign travel and family visits, as well as renewing and extending visas for foreigners. Those restrictions have had a particularly devastating effect on foreign businesspeople and students in the key Asian financial center.

China is now facing a surge in cases and hospitalizations in major cities and is bracing for a further spread into less developed areas with the start of its most important holiday, the Lunar New Year, in coming days.

Authorities say they expect domestic rail and air journeys will double over the same period last year, bringing overall numbers close to those of the 2019 holiday period before the pandemic hit.

Meanwhile, more foreign governments are imposing testing requirements on travelers from China — most recently Germany, Sweden and Portugal. On Saturday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged citizens to avoid "unnecessary" travel to China, noting the rise in coronavirus cases and China's "overburdened" health system.

The German regulation also allows for spot checks on arrival. Germany, like other European nations, will test wastewater from aircrafts for possible new virus variants. The measures come into force at midnight Monday and are due to last until April 7.

Apparently concerned about its reputation, China says the testing requirements aren't science-based and has threatened unspecified countermeasures.

Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new infections, severe cases and fatalities, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of COVID-19-related deaths.

The National Health Commission on Sunday reported 7,072 new confirmed cases of local transmission and two new deaths — even as individual provinces were reporting as many as 1 million cases per day.

Authorities say that since the government ended compulsory testing and permitted people with mild symptoms to test themselves and convalesce at home, it can no longer provide a full picture of the outbreak. China's vulnerabilities are increased by the population's general lack of exposure to the virus and a relatively low vaccination rate among the elderly.

Government spokespeople insist the situation is under control and reject accusations from the World Health Organization and others that they're not being transparent about the outbreak that could lead to the emergence of new variants.

The Health Commission on Saturday rolled out regulations for strengthened monitoring of viral mutations, including testing of urban wastewater. The rules called for increased data gathering from hospitals and local government health departments and stepped-up checks on "pneumonia of unknown causes."

Criticism has largely focused on heavy-handed enforcement of regulations, including open-ended travel restrictions that saw people confined to their homes for weeks, sometimes sealed inside without adequate food or medical care.

Anger was also vented over the requirement that anyone who potentially tested positive or had been in contact with such a person be confined for observation in a field hospital, where overcrowding, poor food and hygiene were commonly cited.

The social and economic costs eventually prompted rare street protests in Beijing and other cities, possibly influencing the Communist Party's decision to swiftly ease the strictest measures.

Excitement as China opens borders to quarantine-free travel

China lifts quarantine rules for inbound travellers, ending nearly three years of self-imposed isolation.

China has lifted pandemic restrictions on foreign travel, ending quarantine requirements for inbound travellers and with it, nearly three years of self-imposed isolation.

The first passengers to arrive under the new rules landed at airports in the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen just after midnight on Sunday, according to the state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN).

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The 387 passengers on board flights from Singapore and Canada’s Toronto were not subject to COVID-19 tests on arrival and did not have to undergo five days of quarantine at centralised government facilities, it reported.

The easing of curbs on foreign travel marks the final unravelling of China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy.

Beijing began dismantling the hardline strategy of mandatory quarantines, gruelling lockdowns and frequent testing following historic protests against the curbs last month. But the abrupt changes have exposed many of its 1.4 billion population to the virus for the first time, triggering a wave of infections that is overwhelming some hospitals, emptying pharmacy shelves of medicines, and causing long lines to form at crematoriums.

The lifting of quarantine rules effectively opens the door for many Chinese to go abroad for the first time since borders slammed shut nearly three years ago, without fear of having to isolate at government facilities on their return.

China’s borders remain closed to tourists, however, with foreigners only allowed to travel to the country for business or family visits.

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said that for many people in China, Sunday marked “the real end of the ‘zero-COVID’ policy”.

“That’s because, before today, it was impossible to leave and enter China without having to undergo quarantine at government facilities and at home. So people feel very excited and quite liberated to go and travel outside the country,” she said. “Popular travel sites say searches for outbound flights have jumped by about 80 percent compared with this time last year, and the favourite destination was Thailand. Others include Japan, South Korea, the US and Australia,” she added.

But the expected surge in visitors has led more than a dozen countries to impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China, citing concerns over Beijing’s “under-representation” of infections and deaths from the illness, as well as the potential for the emergence of new and more virulent subvariants of the coronavirus.

Beijing has called the travel curbs “unacceptable”.

Despite the testing requirements, 28-year-old Zhang Kai told the AFP news agency he is planning a trip to either South Korea or Japan.

“I am happy, now finally [I can] let go,” Zhang said.

Friends of his have already landed in Japan and undergone tests, he said, dismissing the testing requirement as a “small matter”.

In Tokyo, caricaturist Masashi Higashitani said he was thrilled about China’s reopening and was dusting off his Chinese language skills to prepare for more holidaymakers. But he admitted some apprehension.

“I wonder if an influx of too many of them might overwhelm our capacity. I’m also worried that we need to be more careful about anti-virus measures,” he told AFP.

Experts say while concerns about travellers from China were understandable, given the scale of the outbreak in the country, the likelihood of Chinese passengers causing a spike in infections in the countries they visit was minimal.

“People have reason to be concerned about high volume of travellers from China,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, a United States-based think tank.

“But I don’t think it’s reasonable to view these passengers as diseased or dangerous,” he told Al Jazeera. “So far, there is no evidence of emerging new subvariants from China. And given that most of these destination countries have learned to exist with the virus, the influx of the Chinese visitors is not going to lead to a spike in cases in those countries.”

China’s ‘great migration’

The lifting of curbs on overseas travel comes as China also marks Chunyun, the 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel, with millions of people expected to travel from cities hard-hit by COVID to the countryside to visit their relatives, including vulnerable older family members.

This Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs from January 21, will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictions.

The Ministry of Transport said on Friday that it expects more than 2 billion passenger trips over the next 40 days, an increase of 99.5 percent year-on-year and reaching 70.3 percent of trip numbers in 2019.

There was mixed reaction online to that news, with some comments hailing the freedom to return to hometowns and celebrate the Lunar New Year with family for the first time in years.

Many others, however, said they would not travel this year, with the worry of infecting elderly relatives a common theme.

“I dare not go back to my hometown, for fear of bringing the poison back,” one person wrote on microblogging site Weibo.

There are widespread concerns that the great migration of workers from cities to their hometowns will cause a surge in infections in smaller towns and rural areas that are less well-equipped with intensive care unit (ICU) beds and ventilators to deal with them.

Authorities say they are boosting grassroots medical services, opening more rural fever clinics and instituting a “green channel” for high-risk patients, especially elderly people with underlying health conditions, to be transferred from villages directly to higher-level hospitals.

“China’s rural areas are wide, the population is large, and the per capita medical resources are relatively insufficient,” National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Saturday.

“It’s necessary to provide convenient services, accelerate vaccination for the elderly in rural areas and the construction of grassroots lines of defence.”

Some analysts are now saying the current wave of infections may have already peaked.

Ernan Cui, an analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing, cited several online surveys as indicating that rural areas were already more widely exposed to COVID infections than initially thought, with an infection peak having already been reached in most regions, noting there was “not much difference between urban and rural areas”.

Sunday also saw a relaxation of cross-border travel restrictions between the Chinese mainland and the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong.

Up to 50,000 Hong Kong residents will be able to cross the border daily at three land checkpoints after registering online, and another 10,000 will be allowed to enter by sea, air or bridge without needing to register in advance.

More than 410,000 in total had registered to make the journey by Saturday, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

Jillian Xin, who has three children and lives in Hong Kong, said she was “incredibly excited” about the border opening, especially as it means seeing family in Beijing more easily.

“For us, the border opening means my kids can finally meet their grandparents for the first time since the pandemic began,” she told the Reuters news agency. “Two of our children have never been able to see their grandpa, so we cannot wait for them to meet.”

Teresa Chow, another Hong Kong resident, said she was planning to go visit her hometown in the eastern city of Ningbo.

“I’m so happy, so happy, so excited. I haven’t seen my parents for many years,” she said as she and dozens of other travellers prepared to cross into mainland China from Hong Kong’s Lok Ma Chau checkpoint early on Sunday.

“My parents are not in good health, and I couldn’t go back to see them even when they had colon cancer, so I’m really happy to go back and see them now,” she added.

China is reopening to tourists, here's what you need to know

Editor's Note

On Thursday, the U.S. expects to welcome back Chinese tourists for the first time since 2020 , when the Chinese government implemented its now infamous "zero-COVID" policy.

Three days later, as Chinese officials loosen COVID-19 regulations on Jan. 8 (scrapping the previously enforced strict quarantine for all incoming travelers in a government-designated hotel), the U.S. will subject all visitors from China to incoming testing requirements.

As both American and Chinese citizens resume travel between the countries, here's what you should know about traveling to and from China.

Travelers from China must test to enter the US

Beginning Jan. 5 , all travelers from the People's Republic of China (PRC), as well as the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, must submit a negative PCR or rapid self-administered antigen test taken within two days of departure for the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Rapid tests must be "monitored by a telehealth service or a licensed provider and authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or the relevant national authority test of that country," per the CDC.

This rule applies to all air travelers aged 2 and older, effective 12:01 a.m. (EST) Friday. However, the rule does not apply to passengers who recently recovered from COVID-19 and tested positive at least 10 days prior to entry.

"CDC is announcing this step to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the United States during the surge in COVID-19 cases in the PRC given the lack of adequate and transparent epidemiological and viral genomic sequence data being reported from the PRC," the agency said in a press release on Dec. 28. "These data are critical to monitor the case surge effectively and decrease the chance for entry of a novel variant of concern."

The newly announced testing requirement applies to all inbound air passengers, regardless of nationality or vaccination status, traveling directly from China or via a third country, including those transiting through the U.S. However, it does not apply to transiting passengers who spend less than 24 hours in airports in China, Hong Kong or Macau.

These testing rules also apply to passengers transiting Incheon International Airport (ICN), Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR) on their way to the U.S. if they have been in China within the 10 days preceding entry to the U.S.

"These three transit hubs cover the overwhelming majority of passengers with travel originating in the PRC and the Special Administrative Regions," the CDC said.

Though the CDC has tasked airlines with confirming receipt of a negative COVID-19 test ahead of flying, passengers are responsible for uploading documentation during the check-in process, either online or with a gate agent. Domestic carriers also noted these changes online; for example, American Airlines says that passengers without a negative test or recovery document won't be allowed to board the plane.

Read more: IHG sees a tale of two recoveries between the U.S. and China

"We will continue to monitor travel patterns, adjust our approach as needed, and keep Americans informed in a timely manner," according to the CDC.

The European Union is also expected to impose mandatory COVID-19 testing on Chinese travelers among its 27 member states this week — following efforts by individual countries, including Italy, France, Spain and Germany, to do so.

"ECDC, together with the EU/EEA Member States and the European Commission has increased its monitoring activities and will revise risk assessments and adjust actions if needed," the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement on Jan. 3 . "ECDC is working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO)/Europe and WHO/Headquarters and is in regular contact with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and major CDCs globally."

Outside of the EU, India and the United Kingdom have done the same.

Current COVID-19 situation in China

The U.S. implementation of testing measures on travelers coming from China is due to a recent surge in new cases among persons in mainland China in December, according to data from both the World Health Organization and The New York Times .

Health and government officials, including the ECDC, have routinely questioned the reliability of COVID-19 data coming from China.

"The number of COVID-19 cases has reached a record high in mainland China, peaking on 2 December 2022," the ECDC said this week. "In the past three weeks, incidence has fallen, likely also due to a lower number of tests being carried out, resulting in fewer infections being detected."

Even though the country has administered nearly 3.5 billion vaccine doses as of Nov. 29, 2022, per the WHO, the country has relied on Chinese-made vaccines thus far; these vaccines have shown to be less effective against the omicron variant, according to various reporting, including by NPR .

A boom to travel expected

China's reopening next week will almost certainly impact the average nightly price of a hotel room in some of the world's most popular destinations, per industry experts TPG spoke to.

In 2019, Chinese tourists accounted for 4.2% of worldwide tourism — or $154 billion of total spending, according to a recent analysis conducted by AllianceBernstein, a global investment firm. Collectively, China accounted for 12% of the world's total spending on hotel rooms in 2019. In 2023, it's practically at zero.

At the same time, we expect to see hotel rates increase in U.S. cities previously frequented by Chinese tourists pre-pandemic, such as San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York City.

Thus, travelers will likely see the biggest impact in major cities still struggling to recover to pre-pandemic hotel rates, namely San Francisco.

"I see a clear positive correlation between demand and pricing," Richard Clarke, a managing director who covers the hotel industry at Bernstein, told TPG via email. "Those locations that get a lot of Asian visitors have lagged on pricing, so a catch-up on demand should help."

Although analysts are cautious about forecasting exact numbers specifying how much more expensive hotel rates might get with the return of travelers, they seem to rally around the idea this is good news for hotel owners — especially amid so much economic uncertainty.

"It seems like there's an only upside, but the exact timing is a little uncertain," Patrick Scholes, managing director of lodging and leisure equity research at investment bank Truist Securities, said.

Bottom line

The timing of China's reopening aligns with the Chinese New Year, which begins on Jan. 21 and runs for nearly a month. With many people traveling to China for the largest Chinese holiday of the year, a large spike in new COVID-19 cases is expected.

"We look forward to welcoming Chinese travelers back to the United States," U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman said on Dec. 28. "The Biden administration's highly targeted COVID testing approach is reasonable and appreciated."

China’s Tourists Can Travel Again. Here’s Why the World Is Still Waiting for the Rebound

N estled among the crumbling stupas of Laos’s ancient capital Luang Prabang, 525 Cocktails and Tapas was the city’s premier fine dining establishment, serving elevated local cuisine and perhaps Southeast Asia’s yummiest smoked negroni.

Foreign visitors comprised 95% of the restaurant’s footfall, and with tourist numbers to Laos breaking records year-on-year, plus a new high-speed train route due to link the landlocked nation with China’s city of Kunming to the north and Singapore to the south, business was looking up.

Then the pandemic struck. With borders sealed shut, 525’s British proprietor Andrew Sykes had no choice but to suspend operations, instead pivoting to local clientele by opening new premises in Laos’s modern capital, Vientiane. “The business is going very well,” says Sykes. “I will reopen in Luang Prabang but just not quite yet.”

Laos flung open its borders to visitors in May but the uptick in foreign arrivals has been torpid. Many in the hospitality industry hoped that would change following the opening of China’s borders on Jan. 8, given free-spending Chinese tourists comprised almost a quarter of the nation’s 4.7 million international visitors in 2019. Still, the results have been underwhelming.

“We’re starting to see Chinese customers come in, but it’s sub-10% of our business,” says Sykes. “It’s still predominantly Laos with some expats as well.”

Despite an indeterminate human toll , the sudden end of China’s zero-COVID policy is an undoubted boon for the global economy, liberating consumers and retailers of three years of supply chain disruptions wrought by arbitrarily shuttered ports and factories. The end of China’s pandemic travel restrictions is also a huge relief to the global hospitality industry. In 2019, Chinese travelers made 155 million trips overseas, spending $277 billion—a fifth of the global total outlay by international tourists.

But the experience of Laos, right on China’s southwestern frontier, shows that returning to the level of pre-pandemic travel will be a long, slow process.

Rebounding in Phases

The announcement on Dec. 26 that Chinese travelers could once again travel abroad naturally sparked optimism in a regional hospitality industry that has suffered greatly during the pandemic . Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency, reported that overseas bookings from Jan. 1 to Jan. 10 had increased by 313% year-on-year, with Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia among the most popular destinations.

Still, overall traveler numbers remain a fraction of pre-pandemic numbers. Firstly, the abrupt and chaotic end of zero-COVID meant that airlines and travel agencies had little time to scale up capacity before a rush of interest, meaning flights were limited as costs soared.

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“Lots of airports, airlines, travel partners let some of their staff go,” says Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip parent Trip.com Group. “So now they need to recruit the staff back and re-train them. But we’re hoping during the second half of the year, everything will be back to normal.”

When China announced that it would reopen its borders from Jan. 8, the focus internally was on preparing Hong Kong and Macau—two destinations within the People’s Republic but that due to their “semi-autonomous” status still count as “outbound” travel on tourist figures.

The second phase, which began on Feb. 6, included only 20 countries to where Chinese travelers could book tours and “package” (flight plus hotel) vacations: most Southeast Asian nations—including Laos—plus the UAE, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, New Zealand, Fiji, Cuba, and Argentina. In Europe, only Switzerland and Hungary made the cut, while North America was completely shunned.

In any case, the abruptness of the January reopening meant that few Chinese wanted to travel abroad for Lunar New Year—instead choosing to spend it with families that they had been cut off from for the holiday over the past three years. The period immediately following Lunar New Year has never traditionally been a popular travel time in China, and so there’s unlikely to be any huge rebound until the summer at the earliest.

“October and towards the back end of this year is when you’ll start to see the real upswing,” says Gary Bowerman, director of Check-in Asia, a tourism intelligence and strategic marketing firm. “And by that time, you would think that the Chinese travel industry will have found its feet and be able to manage demand.”

Changes in Capacity and Demand

As the world’s largest travel industry, it will take some time for China to get back up to full capacity. A positive factor is that China’s domestic tourism is huge and permitted tour operators to pivot inward rather than suspend operations completely, as was the case in smaller countries.

Still, it’s unlikely that tourism from China will return in exactly the same shape as before. Currently, there just aren’t many flights. Travel data firm OAG suggests that capacity to and from China will swell from about 1.5 million seats in December 2022 to more than 4 million in April 2023. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAC) expects total air traffic for 2023 to reach 75% of pre-pandemic levels.

The CAC will soon post its new spring and summer flight schedules, which will show where demand is heading over the next few months. Every big airline is currently locked in negotiations, though China, as ever, will protect its own domestic carriers by handing them the pick of routes and timings.

In addition, political wrangling persists. China is the only country globally to reopen its borders in the midst of a huge COVID surge (in fact, its biggest on record). Some nations eager for tourism cash chose to backburner the public health implications. In Thailand, where 28% of all visitors in 2019 were from China, arrivals were welcomed by garlands and health kits handed out personally by a deputy prime minister.

However, many governments slapped new testing requirements or bans on Chinese arrivals, prompting Beijing to retaliate by suspending the issuance of short-term visas to their nationals, including from South Korea and Japan. Tourism flows will continue to be buffeted by such politically-charged pandemic headwinds.

The pandemic has also left its imprint on travel habits. Ctrip’s Sun says that today’s Chinese tourists are looking to book trips at short notice—mitigating possible pandemic disruption—but also travel in smaller groups, using more sustainable means, and in ways that they feel safe. “More and more customers really want to be very well protected when they’re traveling,” says Sun.

This is another reason why the U.S. might be last to feel the benefits of any rebound. As relations between Beijing and Washington spiral over myriad issues , anti-Asian hate crime and gun violence has been amplified on Chinese state media. Even before the pandemic, Trump-era trade tariffs and anti-China bombast contributed to just 2.9 million Chinese travelers visiting the U.S. in 2018, down from 3.2 million in 2017, according to U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office data. “Chinese tourists are incredibly risk averse,” says Bowerman. “They don’t want to be near anything that puts their own personal security in danger.”

Of course, given many Chinese study, work or have family in the U.S., a significant number will continue to shuttle across the Pacific. However, safety concerns and a high price point for American travel amid a slowing Chinese economy, plus onerous restrictions for Chinese nationals to get U.S. visas, means many will stay away. And they will be missed; in 2018, Chinese tourists in the U.S. each spent an average of $6,700 per trip—over 50% more than the typical traveler, according to industry body the U.S. Travel Association.

“The Chinese economy has been struggling so I think pricier destinations might find it a little bit more difficult,” says Bowerman. “Value will be a big factor over the next six to 12 months, for sure.”

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Write to Charlie Campbell / Singapore at [email protected]

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Chinese Travel Is Set to Return. The Question Is, When?

The country has dropped restrictions on overseas journeys for its citizens, but once-popular destinations are still waiting for the flood of vacationers to arrive.

By Ceylan Yeginsu and Patrick Scott

When the first Chinese tourists landed at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok this month, they were greeted like celebrities with welcome banners, flowers, gifts, and a scrum of reporters and photographers.

It was the moment that hotels, airlines, tour operators and government officials had long been waiting for — the reopening of China’s borders after nearly three years of pandemic restrictions that effectively cut the world off from Chinese travelers, once the largest source of global tourism revenue.

“It is very exciting to visit warm beautiful places again,” said Hua Liu, 34, a graphic designer from Shanghai, who was among the first visitors to Thailand, where she took a two-week beach vacation late this month, as part of a Lunar New Year trip. “I will make up for the lost time,” she said in a telephone interview. Her plan: “Stay at nice hotels, book spa treatments, eat at fine restaurants and buy nice gifts for myself and my family.”

Before the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed international travel in 2020, China sent more travelers overseas than any other market, with about 150 million Chinese tourists spending $277 billion abroad in 2018, according to a study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the China Tourism Academy. That outflow halted in 2020 and in the last year, even as countries around the world eased travel restrictions, China maintained an international travel ban for its citizens as part of its “zero Covid” policy.

But on Jan. 8, the Chinese government opened its borders, allowing foreign travelers to enter and Chinese residents to go overseas. Some in the travel industry were predicting a flood of international Chinese travelers after search interest for outbound flights from mainland China increased by 83 percent between Dec. 26 and Jan. 5, with international flight bookings up 59 percent in the same period, according to the Chinese online travel agency Ctrip .

But while there has been a bump in tourism to nearby destinations, including Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore, farther-flung destinations are still waiting. In addition to high levels of Covid cases within China, Chinese travelers face long delays in getting passports and visas, high prices for international flights and a lack of capacity, since many carriers cut flights during China’s long lockdown. As of Friday, the number of airline seats available on direct flights from China to Britain in January was at about eight percent of those available in 2019, according to VisitBritain, the official tourist board. The first direct flight scheduled between China and Switzerland on Jan. 26 was canceled because of a lack of passengers.

Thailand gets ready

Before the pandemic, busloads of up to 700 Chinese tourists daily crowded into Maetaeng Elephant Park in the low-slung hills of northern Thailand, about an hour north of Chiang Mai.

Borprit Chailert, the park’s manager, is eagerly awaiting their return, but so far only about 40 Chinese vacationers have shown up, he said.

When they do arrive, renting elephants from nearby villagers to fortify his herd of 76 won’t be difficult, Mr. Chailert said. But it’s hard to know when to bring on more workers and where to find them, since many left the tourist region and switched jobs when tourism stopped, he said.

“If we want to hire 100 people today, we can’t do that because we’re not sure,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe in the next two months the Chinese government says, ‘We’re closing the border again.’”

With its economy heavily dependent on tourism, Thailand lost out on tens of billions of dollars in spending by Chinese tourists over the last three years. The Chiang Mai office of the Tourism Authority estimates that the city, known for its stunning Buddhist temples and heavy dependence on tourism, will welcome back about 600,000 Chinese visitors this year who will spend about $230 million — about half of the total from 2019.

The real numbers won’t start until the second quarter, people in the Thai travel sector say. Many Chinese tourists traditionally come to Thailand on group tours (they made up about half of the Chinese visitors in Chiang Mai), and the Chinese government is not letting tour operators restart their businesses until Feb. 6, and then only under a pilot program with about two dozen countries, including Thailand. For now, only independent Chinese tourists who can afford the expensive airfare are taking trips.

But not everyone is keen to welcome back group tours. Even before Covid, operators in Thailand and China saw a reversal of the group tour trend and a shift toward more tech-savvy Chinese travelers armed with booking and experience apps taking trips on their own.

Over the last decade, while the overall numbers of Chinese tourists rose, group tours dwindled amid a crackdown on cheap so-called zero-dollar tours in Phuket, the 40-mile long island on the Thai peninsula’s west coast. Often illegal operations dodging taxes, the tours typically were controlled by Chinese investors who owned buses, hotels, restaurants, spas and gift shops, siphoning off tourist spending from locals. They were known for pressuring guests to buy overpriced souvenirs at the shops they controlled.

“I don’t think that we will have more of the big tour groups,” said Nantida Atiset, a hotel owner in Phuket and the vice president of the Phuket Tourist Association. “I think they will come back, of course. It’s just a matter of how big they will come back.”

Pricey flights to London and Australia

In London, another popular destination for Chinese travelers, more than 300,000 people visited Chinatown last week for the first Lunar New Year parade since the coronavirus, but few Chinese tourists were present.

Feng Yang, the manager of Shanghai Family, a Chinese restaurant in central London, said that he didn’t expect any travelers from China during the Lunar New Year period, but was hopeful they would return in a few months. “They’re still affected by the coronavirus,” Mr. Yang said, adding that his business would most likely not suffer because about 85 percent of his customers are Chinese students from the surrounding universities, who aren’t going back to China for the holiday.

The slow growth can be blamed on a combination of factors. “There aren’t many flights, they will tend to be more expensive, and people will need a visa to come,” said Patricia Yates, the chief executive of VisitBritain, adding that the return of Chinese travelers to Britain would be a “slow build” this year with higher expectations in 2024. Round-trip flights to London from China are currently running at around $1,300 and Ms. Yates expects the number of seats on flights from China to Britain to grow to only 30 percent of 2019 capacity by June. “That is really necessary to get people on planes,” she said.

Before the pandemic, China was Australia’s biggest visitor market in terms of spending. The country received 1.4 million Chinese visitors in 2019 who spent $12.4 billion.

Chinese travelers have started to return to visit friends and family, but travel operators do not expect an influx of leisure travelers for several months, as flights are expensive and Australia is not on China’s approved list for group tour destinations. Australia also requires coronavirus testing for Chinese travelers. This month, round-trip flights between China and Australia range between $1,800 and $3,000. Before the pandemic, Chinese tourists were known for being willing to spend money, said James Shen, the owner of Odyssey Travel in Melbourne. “Chinese tourists are the ones who say, ‘I don’t want to take a boat, I want to take a helicopter,’” he said. “It might be a 10-minute journey, 400 Australian dollars — very expensive — but Chinese tourists will say, ‘I want to take this, not the boat, because maybe I’ll get seasick.’”

While many travel operators are eager for their return, some worry that the industry may not be able to keep up with a new influx of tourists.

“The industry disappeared for two years; it’ll be very hard for it to recover,” said Rick Liu, the owner of TanTan Holiday travel agency in Melbourne. Many drivers and tour guides found other work while the tourism industry was on pause, he added, and hiring them back may be difficult.

“I’m happy that we’ll have more tourists, but I’m also a bit worried about whether we’ll be able to accommodate them properly, provide them with high enough quality service,” he added. “We’re a bit out of practice.”

Yan Zhuang contributed reporting from Melbourne, Australia, and Derrick Bryson Taylor from London.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023 .

Ceylan Yeginsu is a travel reporter. She was previously a correspondent for the International desk in Britain and Turkey, covering politics; social justice; the migrant crisis; the Kurdish conflict, and the rise of Islamic State extremism in Syria and the region. More about Ceylan Yeginsu

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Blinken will be the latest top US official to visit China in a bid to keep ties on an even keel

FILE - Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, accompanied by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, walk to meet the media after a bilateral meeting at the State Department in Washington, Oct. 26, 2023. Blinken will travel to China, the State Department announced Saturday, April 20, 2024, as the rivals attempt to keep ties on an even keel despite severe differences over issues ranging from the path to peace in the Middle East to the supply of synthetic opioids that have heightened fears over global stability. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attends a meeting in Beijing China, April 7, 2024. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China, the State Department announced Saturday, April 20, 2024, as the rivals attempt to keep ties on an even keel despite severe differences. The trip follows Yellen’s visit, a phone call this month between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a phone call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, Pool, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China this coming week as Washington and Beijing try to keep ties on an even keel despite major differences on issues from the path to peace in the Middle East to the supply of synthetic opioids that have heightened fears over global stability.

The rivals are at odds on numerous fronts, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Taiwan and the South China Sea , North Korea, Hong Kong, human rights and the detention of American citizens. The United States and China also are battling over trade and commerce issues, with President Joe Biden announcing new tariffs on imports of Chinese steel this past week.

The State Department said Saturday that Blinken, on his second visit to China in less than a year , will travel to Shanghai and Beijing starting Wednesday for three days of meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Talks between Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected, although neither side will confirm such a meeting is happening until shortly before it takes place.

The department said in a statement that Blinken would “discuss a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues,” including the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

He will also talk about progress made in “resuming counternarcotics cooperation, military-to-military communication, artificial intelligence, and strengthening people-to-people ties” and will reaffirm how important it is for the U.S. and China to be “responsibly managing competition, even in areas where our two countries disagree,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

The trip follows a phone call this month between Biden and Xi in which they pledged to keep high-level contacts open, something they had agreed to last year at a face-to-face summit in California. Since that call, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has visited China and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken by phone with his Chinese counterpart . Meetings at lower levels also have taken place.

Despite those encounters, relations are rocky. The U.S. has recently become more vocal in its calls for China to stop supporting Russia’s military-industrial sector, which Washington says has allowed Moscow to boost weapons production to support the war against Ukraine .

“We see China sharing machine tools, semiconductors, other dual-use items that have helped Russia rebuild the defense industrial base that sanctions and export controls had done so much to degrade,” Blinken said Friday. “Now, if China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.”

Blinken also has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East . He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart several times since the Israel-Hamas war began six months ago as he has sought China’s help in getting Iran to restrain proxy groups it has supported, armed and funded in the region.

That topic has taken on new urgency since direct back-and-forth attacks by Iran and Israel on each other’s soil in the past week.

Also high on the agenda for Blinken will be Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The U.S. has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive U.S. administrations have steadily ramped up military support and sales for Taipei, much to the anger of Chinese officials.

In the South China Sea, the U.S. and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas. In particular, the U.S. has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate activities by others in the waterway, notably the Philippines and Vietnam.

That was a major topic of concern earlier this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

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Remote province in China sees surge in tourism, thanks to hot pot

• Asia & Oceania

Friday, 19 Apr 2024

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The beautiful Hexi Corridor in Gansu is part of the Silk Road. — Pixabay

Winter and spring are traditionally quiet seasons in terms of travel in northwest China’s Gansu, as this province tends to experience cold and dry weather at this time of year.

However, over the past three months, the remote Gansu region has witnessed the presence of significant numbers of domestic tourists at its scenic spots along the Hexi Corridor.

Stretching over a distance of nearly 1,000km in Gansu, the Hexi Corridor is part of the ancient Silk Road. A total of five Unesco World Heritage Sites and 53 grottoes are scattered along the Hexi Corridor.

Li Li, a tourist from Guangdong Province, decided to avoid this year’s peak summer tourism season, opting instead for a more quiet time to travel with her parents and child. However, she was surprised by how tourism has changed in Gansu, encountering more tourists than she had expected at scenic spots like Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring in the city of Dunhuang.

Thanks to preferential policies rolled out by Dunhuang’s government last December, the attractions have gained popularity, said Yang Shaojun, deputy general manager of the Dunhuang Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Spring Tourism Development.

According to Yang, as of April 6, the scenic spots had received a total of 205,310 tourist visits this year – an increase of 65.05% compared with the same period in 2023.

Data from the provincial department of culture and tourism showed that in the first two months of this year, Gansu had recorded 44.5 million tourist visits and pocketed comprehensive tourism income of some CNY30bil (RM19.68bil), an increase of 33.8% and 56%, respectively, compared with the same period in 2023.

In addition to enjoying Gansu’s natural scenery, tourists are also drawn by the local culture and delicacies.

Tianshui Malatang, an iconic hot pot dish with roots in Tianshui, a low-key city in Gansu, has recently garnered considerable attention online, following significant endorsements from food enthusiasts and social media influencers.

In mid-March, the average daily passenger flow at the city’s railway stations surged by some 40% in a week compared to the same period last year, data from China Railways revealed.

Yang Yujuan, director of the social education department of the Wuwei Municipal Museum, has witnessed a considerable increase in the number of visitors to the museum this spring.

The province’s booming tourism is attributable to local efforts to provide high-quality tourism products, options and services – such as granting free tickets for scenic spots and launching innovative activities.

According to He Xiaozu, head of the provincial department of culture and tourism, Gansu will continue to integrate high-quality cultural tourism resources across the province to boost consumption potential and attract more tourists. – Xinhua

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Tags / Keywords: Gansu , China , Tourism , Tianshui Malatang , Hexi Corridor , Silk Road , Dunhuang , Mingsha Mountain , Crescent Spring

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SINGAPORE, April 19 -- The China Travel Fair 2024 kicked off at Singapore's Suntec Convention and Exhibition Center on Friday.

Held by the China National Tourist Office in Singapore, the three-day event attracts 16 local travel agencies as well as several airlines from both countries.

Travel agencies are introducing deep travel packages, such as 11- or 12-day trips, to customers as a mutual visa-exemption arrangement in February enables Singaporeans to stay in China for up to 30 days.

"I am interested in Chongqing. It deserves a trip as an internet celebrity '3D mountain city.' The hot pot also attracts me," said a customer at the fair.

"We saw a steady growth in customers to China in recent months. Travel routes to Xinjiang, Zhangjiajie, and the Three Gorges Reservoir are popular," said Li Liangyi, president of China Express Travel.

Li noted that increasing flights between Singapore and China will unleash the potential for tourism in the future.

"Moreover, necessary mobile apps in China, like WeChat and Alipay, are also popular in Singapore, which make local people's trips to China more convenient. Thus, a growing number of Singaporeans are choosing China as their travel destination," Li added.

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Blinken to Raise China's Support for Russia's Defense Industrial Base During Visit

Blinken to Raise China's Support for Russia's Defense Industrial Base During Visit

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron at the State Department in Washington, U.S., April 9, 2024. REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy/File Photo

By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on an upcoming visit to China is expected to raise U.S. concerns Beijing is helping Russia build up its defense industrial base to fight the war in Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

The U.S. has warned China not to aid Moscow's war effort since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which came just weeks after Russia and China declared a "no limits partnership."

"What we have seen over the past months is that there have been materials moving from China to Russia that Russia has used to rebuild that industrial base and produce arms that are showing up on the battlefield in Ukraine," Miller said at a press briefing. "And we are incredibly concerned about that."

U.S. officials briefed reporters last week on materials China was providing to Russia, including drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, that fall short of providing lethal assistance but were helping Russia build up its military to sustain its two-year-old war in Ukraine.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson told Reuters last week that China was not a party to the Ukraine crisis and that normal trade between China and Russia should not be interfered with or restricted.

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President Joe Biden raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call earlier this month, after which U.S. officials said Blinken would travel to China in the coming weeks. Details of Blinken's trip have not yet been announced.

"Without getting too far ahead of those meetings, you can certainly expect that that is an issue that he would be expected to raise," Miller said.

Blinken raised the issue with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels earlier this month and would also discuss it when he meets counterparts from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies in Italy this week, he added.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Costas Pitas and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Daniel Wallis)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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April 19, 2024 - Iran targeted in aerial attack

By Kathleen Magramo, Elizabeth Wolfe and Aditi Sangal, CNN

Our live coverage of the attack on Iran has moved here .

Iranian president makes no mention of Israeli strike while lauding its previous weekend attack

From CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi made no mention of Israel's Friday (local time) strike on Iran, while publicly lauding the unprecedented  Iranian military operation last weekend targeting the "Israeli-occupied territories."

Iran's April 13 retaliatory strikes, part of an operation named "True Promise," were a display of Iran's military strength and a necessary act against what Raisi called the "illegal regime," he said Friday. 

Raisi described the strikes as "punitive reprisal" by the Iranian Armed Forces, aimed at demonstrating Iran's power and the resolve of its people. 

Remember: The on April 1 strikes on Iran's embassy compound in Damascus demolished a building and left several dead, including two high-ranking generals.

Israel and the United States have said that Iran's lob of some 300 missiles had very little material impact and caused only one injury.

3 wounded in Iraq explosions, official says. Israel denies involvement

From CNN's Aqeel Najim and Hamdi Alkhshali  

At least three members of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units or PMU — also called Popular Mobilization Forces or PMF — were wounded following "five explosions" at a military base south of Baghdad, said Muhannad al-Anazi, member of the Security Committee in Babylon Governorate, in a statement in the early hours of Saturday local time.

A short statement released by the PMU acknowledged there was “an explosion that occurred at the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces at the Kalsu military base in the Al-Mashrou district on the highway, north of the Babylon Governorate."

An investigation team arrived at the scene, and the explosion caused material losses and injuries, the PMU said. “We will provide you with the details once the preliminary investigation is completed," it added.

Israel has no involvement in the reports of explosions in Iraq on Friday evening, an Israeli official told CNN.

The US Central Command said the US did not carry out strikes in Iraq. The Combined Joint Task Force that leads Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the ongoing multinational mission to defeat ISIS, also said the US-led coalition did not carry out any strikes in Iraq.

Remember: The explosions near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad come one day after strikes against a military base in Isfahan , Iran. A US official told CNN that Israel was responsible for the strikes in Iran.

This post has been updated with comments from an Israeli and US official.

Catch up on the latest developments as tensions simmer in the Middle East

From CNN staff

The aftermath of the Israeli strikes in Iran left the world on edge as concerns of a potentially dangerous escalation of a fast-widening Middle East conflict continue to rise.

Here's the immediate response almost 24 hours after the strikes:

• The Biden administration has been tight-lipped following the Israeli strikes in Iran .
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, according to a readout from the Pentagon, but it makes no mention of the Israeli strikes.
• Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also declined to weigh in Friday, telling reporters during the White House press briefing the Biden administration was going to avoid commenting on the subject altogether.
• Iraq expressed "deep concern" over the strikes and the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Friday warned of the risks of military escalation that "now threaten the security and stability of the region as a whole." Its statement emphasized that the Israeli-Iranian escalation should not "divert attention" from the ongoing destruction and loss of innocent lives in the Gaza Strip.
• Jordanian deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN that escalation "serves nobody," and that Jordan will not "be a battleground for Israel and Iran and neither of them should violate our airspace, endanger our security and our people." He also urged all involved partied to focus on ending the "catastrophe that continues to unfold in Gaza."

Here's what else happened:

• US secures key agreement for aid distribution in Gaza: The Biden administration has  secured an agreement  with a major United Nations agency to distribute aid from the pier the  US military is constructing off the coast of Gaza , two senior US officials told CNN — a key development as the US and its allies have rushed to finalize plans for how desperately needed humanitarian aid will be distributed inside the war-torn strip. The US military is expected to finish constructing the pier early next month. The World Food Programme (WFP) will support distribution of aid from the pier following weeks of diplomatic wrangling, multiple officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
• Blinken defends US veto on Palestinian statehood: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution for Palestinian statehood at the UN. “The United States is committed to achieving a Palestinian state,” the top US diplomat said, “but getting to that, achieving that state, has to be done through diplomacy, not through imposition.”

US Defense Secretary speaks with Israeli counterpart again following strikes in Iran

From CNN's Oren Liebermann

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart on Friday, according to a readout from the Pentagon.

This comes one day after Israel carried out strikes in Iran . The readout makes no mention of the Israeli strikes, and the Biden administration has been tight-lipped following the actions. 

Austin and Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant discussed “regional stability,” as well as the ongoing war in Gaza, according to the Pentagon.

Austin also spoke with Gallant on Thursday before the strikes took place. The readout of the earlier call had slightly more information, saying the two discussed “Iran’s destabilizing actions in the Middle East.”

In a previous call, Austin had asked Gallant for Israel to notify the US before taking any action in retaliation for a massive Iranian barrage fired at Israel last weekend.

Analysis: Iran and Israel have averted an all-out war – for now

Analysis from CNN's Tamara Qiblawi in Beirut, Lebanon

The scope of Israel’s military response to Iran’s first-ever direct attack on the country remains murky. Israeli officials have yet to publicly acknowledge responsibility for reported overnight explosions in parts of Iran on Friday. Tehran has dismissed these as attacks by “tiny drones” that were shot down by its air defense systems.

Iran may be downplaying what was likely to have been a significant but limited Israeli attack, but that seems to be secondary to the larger forces at play. What is plain to see is that both  Iran and Israel are keen to wrap up the most dangerous escalation between the two regional powerhouses to date.

This month’s dramatic escalation, which kicked off with an apparent  Israeli airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus , followed by a largely foiled  Iranian attack of over 300 airborne weapons on Israel, seems to have given way to a rapid climbdown. Shortly after the Friday morning attack in Iran, a regional intelligence source told CNN that Iran was not expected to respond further, and that the direct state-to-state strikes between the two enemy states were over.

The latest flare-up brought the stakes into sharp focus, but it also exposed the limits of a direct confrontation between Iran and Israel.

Remember: What happens between Iran and Israel rarely stays between Iran and Israel. The region is deeply intertwined. That heightens the risks of military action, but it also acts as guardrails against a potential conflagration. So when US officials said last weekend that Washington would not participate in an Israeli response to Iran’s attack on Israel, that seemed to immediately take the wind out of the sails of a potential escalation.

EU sanctions "extremist settlers" in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

From CNN’s Catherine Nicholls and Benjamin Brown in London

The European Union has imposed sanctions on “extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem,” the European Council announced on Friday, listing four people and two entities.

According to the statement, the entities Lehava, a “radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group,” and Hilltop Youth, a “radical youth group consisting of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank,” were added to the EU sanctions regime alongside two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered.

Neria Ben Pazi, who the EU's governing body said has been “accused of repeatedly attacking Palestinians,” and Yinon Levi, who the council said has “taken part in multiple violent acts against neighbouring villages,” were also added to the listing.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a  post on X  that “the EU has decided to sanction extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians. We strongly condemn extremist settler violence: perpetrators must be held to account.”

Belgium’s Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said that she  “welcomes” the sanctions , adding that the “recent escalation of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop; these settlers must be held accountable.”

Yered responded later Friday, saying he was “honored to be included in this respected list” and that “we shall continue holding onto the land of our forefathers — until the victory.”

This post has been updated with comment from Elisha Yered.

Exclusive: No extensive damage seen at Isfahan air base in satellite images

From CNN's Paul P. Murphy

There does not appear to be any extensive damage at an air base purportedly targeted by an Israeli military strike, according to exclusive satellite images obtained by CNN from Umbra Space. 

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images were taken around 10:18 a.m. local time. 

There does not appear to be any large craters in the ground and there are no apparent destroyed buildings. Additional visual satellite imagery will be needed to check for burn scars – which cannot be seen by SAR images -- around the complex.

SAR images are not like normal satellite images. 

The SAR images are created by a satellite transmitting radar beams capable of passing through clouds, like the ones currently preventing satellites from imaging the area. Those radar beams bounce off objects on the ground, and echo back to the satellite.

Iranian news agency FARS said that an army radar at the Isfahan province military base was one of the possible targets, and that the only damage from the attack was broken windows on several office buildings.

The images also show that the Iranian F-14 Tomcats that have been stationed at the air base in the past are not there at the moment. Additional archival satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that those F-14 Tomcats have not been there for some time.

UN secretary-general pushes for end to retaliation in the Middle East

From CNN's Richard Roth

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged both sides to cease retaliating after Israel carried out a military strike on Iran, a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. 

"The Secretary-General reiterates that it is high time to stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East," the statement read. "The Secretary-General condemns any act of retaliation and appeals to the international community to work together to prevent any further development that could lead to devastating consequences for the entire region and beyond," it continued. 

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