China Ends Mandatory Quarantine, Eases COVID-19 Restrictions For International Travelers

China announced that it will end its mandatory COVID-19 quarantine policies for international travelers starting on January 8th.

Passengers arriving to mainland China will only need to show a negative test, taken within the last 48 hours, in order to gain entry to the country. Masks will still be required on flights arriving in China, but “health codes,” passes, and contact tracing will also be discontinued.

If you have tried to travel to China at any point over the last three years, you were sure to be met with a litany of rules, regulations, and restrictions, including mandatory quarantine.

At one point, quarantine was required for whopping 14-21 days, depending on where you were coming from, before being reduced down to seven days. Recently, China dropped it again, from seven to five days, before this latest announcement to eliminate it.

While the new announcement brings hope for the return of normal travel to China, experts warn it will still take time for things to rebound. The number of flights into and out of China, for example, will need to return to its pre-pandemic levels.

“Just because the borders are open doesn’t mean travel will bounce back immediately,” Michael Hart, said president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. “I don’t think the U.S. carriers or the international carriers will immediately go back to normal because those airplanes are already flying other routes.”

How prices, fares, and rates throughout the Chinese tourism industry will react to the new influx of demand is another question. With limited flights to start, it would be safe to assume that plane fares will be inflated at the on-set of the new rules in January.