An Air China plane cabin was filled with smoke after its engine caught fire, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Singapore on Sunday.
25.08.2023 - 14:23 / skift.com
China on Saturday marked the first day of “chun yun”, the 40-day period of Lunar New Year travel known pre-pandemic as the world’s largest annual migration of people, bracing for a huge increase in travellers and the spread of COVID-19 infections.
This Lunar New Year public holiday, which officially runs from Jan. 21, will be the first since 2020 without domestic travel restrictions.
Over the last month China has seen the dramatic dismantling of its “zero-COVID” regime following historic protests against a policy that included frequent testing, restricted movement, mass lockdowns and heavy damage to the world’s No.2 economy.
Investors are hoping that the reopening will eventually reinvigorate a $17-trillion economy suffering its lowest growth in nearly half a century.
But the abrupt changes have exposed many of China’s 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 medication and causing long lines to form at crematoriums.
China’s Ministry of Transport said on Friday that it expects more than 2 billion passengers to take trips over the next 40 days, an increase of 99.5 percent year-on-year and reaching 70.3 percent of 2019 trip numbers.
Reaction to that news online was mixed, 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 worry of infecting elderly relatives a common theme.
“I dare not go back to my hometown, for fear of bringing the poison back,” said one such comment on the Twitter-like Weibo.
There are widespread concerns that the great migration of workers in cities to their hometowns will cause a surge in infections in smaller towns and rural areas less well-equipped with ICU beds and ventilators to deal with them.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, acknowledged that risk in a Friday note but went on to say that “in the large cities that make up much of China’s economy, it seems the worst has passed”.
Ernan Cui, analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing, cited several online surveys as indicating that the current wave of infections may have already peaked in most regions, noting there was “not much difference between urban and rural areas.”
Sunday marks the reopening of China’s border with Hong Kong and the end of China’s requirement for inbound international travellers to quarantine. That effectively opened the door for many Chinese to travel abroad for the first time since borders slammed shut nearly three years ago, without fear of having to quarantine on their return.
More than a dozen countries are now
An Air China plane cabin was filled with smoke after its engine caught fire, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Singapore on Sunday.
A section of the Great Wall in China was severely damaged after construction workers dug out a large gap as a shortcut to get their equipment through.
Antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Tata group’s plan to merge its full-service carriers Air India and Vistara.
Whether it’s a Moroccan-influenced Chicken & Shrimp Kefta with a Vietnamese-style Nuoc Cham dipping sauce, or a Green Thai Curry Hummus with both English and Wasabi peas, Chef Jason Neroni of the newly-opened The Desmond restaurant has California Cuisine speaking with a lot of different accents. “We’re buying everything we can from the area,” says Neroni, “then we craft it with global influences. That gives us no boundaries — we’ve got a lot of different palates traveling through here and we can make them all very happy.”
China dropped mandatory COVID-19 testing for incoming travelers on Wednesday, becoming one of the last countries in the world to do so.
International travelers heading to mainland China will no longer need to present a negative COVID-19 test before being permitted to enter, starting on Wednesday, August 30.
ITB China, the marketplace for China’s travel industry, is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Trip.com Group, the leading global travel service provider for this year’s highly anticipated event, taking place from 12 – 14 September 2023 in Shanghai.
Emphasizing strategic cooperation, ITB China is pleased to announce the Maldives as the Official Island Travel Partner of ITB China 2023. The partnership will turn the prime travel destination into one of the highlights of the trade show, held on 12 – 14 September 2023 in Shanghai.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo arrived in Beijing late on Sunday for a four-day visit aimed at boosting business ties between the world’s two largest economies while declaring American national security trade measures off-limits for debate.
In just the past few days, there have been two key moves that ease restrictions for travel from China to the U.S. Tourism officials have been clear that the lifting of these restrictions is critical to a full recovery –though key hurdles remain. On Thursday, China lifted pandemic-era group tour restrictions for the U.S. and other key markets. Before the lift, Chinese travel agencies were banned from selling outbound group or package travel to the U.S.
Searches on Chinese travel sites surged and social media platforms were flooded with delight and relief on Wednesday as the public cheered the biggest loosening of some of the world’s strictest Covid policies.
Southeast Asia’s tourist economies are set to be leading beneficiaries of China‘s scrapping of travel bans as they have steered clear of the COVID-19 tests before entry that Europe, Japan and the United States have imposed on Chinese visitors.