Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: Travellers streamed into China by land, air, and sea on Sunday, many eager for long-awaited reunions as Beijing has opened borders that had been all but shut since the start of the Covid pandemic.
According to Reuters, after three years, mainland China opened land, air and sea crossings with Hong Kong and ended the requirement for incoming travellers to quarantine, dismantling the final pillar of a zero-Covid-19 policy that had shielded China’s 1.4 billion people from the fatal virus but also cut off the country from the rest of the world.
Reopen borders
China’s easing over the previous month of one of the world’s tightest Covid-19 regimes followed historic protests against the policy that included frequent testing, curbs on movement and mass lockdowns that took a heavy toll on the world’s second-biggest economy.
Long queues have formed at the Hong Kong international airport for flights to mainland cities including Beijing, Tianjin and Xiamen. The Hong Kong media estimated that thousands were crossing into China.
“I am so happy, so happy, so excited. I have not seen my parents for so many years,” said Hong Kong resident Teresa Chow as she and dozens of others prepared to cross into mainland China from Hong Kong’s Lok Ma Chau checkpoint.
She said “my parents were not in good health and I couldn’t go back to see them even when they had colon cancer, so I’m delighted to go back and see them now.”
