HONG KONG -- In the past three years Zhou Wanhui, a Hong Kong resident, has been to her family in China only three times. Although they are only two hours away via railway, Covid restrictions made it impossible to traverse over the Hong Kong border into mainland China that Ms. Zhou's visits included an hour-long flight to Shanghai and a full one month's quarantine across two towns.

Families such as Ms. Zhou's are kept separate for weddings and funerals, graduations, birthdays, and birthdays are now preparing for less stressful reunions.

This past Sunday China officially opened their borders, for the first time in the years since the coronavirus outbreak started, welcoming visitors without strict quarantine regulations and allowing citizens to travel overseas again, just as the travel time in the Lunar New Year, typically the most crowded season, starts. At Hong Kong's airport hundreds of travelers were waiting to get checked in at the airport for departures to south-bound cities such as Xiamen and Chongqing and to the north, such as Beijing and Tianjin However, the hall for arrivals was peaceful. A lot of Hong Kong's border checkpoints have been reopened. empty transportation halls were crowded with crowds of people and shuttered stores were open for business.

The girl. Zhou, 22, is a student at the university. She wrote her parents via text that she would be at home to celebrate Lunar Year. Year in January. 22. "Wow what great news! The border is now open," her parents wrote back in a thumbs-up emoticons.

However, the feeling of unease from both tourists and the nations waiting for years to receive rich-pocketed Chinese visitors back to their shores has dampened the festive spirit.

As China quickly renounced Covid restriction, a fierce disease has spread across the country over the past few weeks, creating chaos in hospitals and placing pressure on health workers. Beijing's announcement just 2 weeks ago to allow the openness of their borders to foreigners has caused many as well as confused and cautious.

"It was too abrupt," said Jenny Zhao, 34, speaking of China's rapid reverse of China's Covid policies. The woman. Zhao, who is an executive in the field of marketing who lives in Singapore for the last year. She was stuck in Singapore and faced a number of obstacles to get back to China in the past year, and made the decision to stay in Singapore after securing employment for an international business.

With the spread of infections across China Zhao is now suffering from a rash of infections in China. Zhao isn't sure she is fit enough to return.

"All of my family members, including my grandmother, who is 88 years old, have gotten Covid," Ms. Zhao said. Her mother has told her that every person within their compound of 3,000 units located in the city of Chongqing appears to be suffering of the disease.

Instead of visiting China over to celebrate the Lunar New Year, Ms. Zhao has decided to keep her family in the winter to see her family. In the meantime she hopes that the current spike for Covid numbers will have slowed down and the restrictions for Chinese travellers from overseas will have been eased, and airfare will be much less costly. Mrs. Zhao said she plans to accompany her parents on an excursion to Thailand.

All over the world, people are excited to see their return Chinese tourists such as Mrs. Zhao and her parents. Prior to the outbreak, Chinese tourists spent $250 billion each year in the world. Their sudden disappearance in the early part of 2020 was the time after which China shut down tours groups as well as travel package tours, sent numerous tour guides and travel operators into financial ruin. The impact was felt in countries such as Thailand, Japan and South Korea.

However, some of these countries are also considering the possibility of attracting Chinese visitors and are facing the concerns of health experts regarding the scope of the China's Covid virus outbreak. They also worry about the possibility for new mutations to the coronavirus, and the potential health effects that sick travelers may affect health care systems.

Understand the Situation in China

The Chinese government has thrown out its strict "zero Covid" policy, that had triggered massive protests, which were an uncommon contest against the Communist Party leadership.

Experts from the world of health as well as experts from the World Health Organization have warned that the spread in China as well as the lack of transparency in the reporting of cases, makes it difficult to gauge the extent of the problem.

In the last few days, many nations around the world have begun to mandate Covid tests and health surveillance of people traveling from China. The move has drawn protests from Beijing who has claimed that the move is not based on scientific foundation.

The European Union on Wednesday said it "strongly encouraged" its 27 members to implement testing and masking rules in the midst of Chinese tourists begin returning to the most popular European cities.

In fact, Hong Kong, where the government has imposed many of these same restrictions on border crossings as China until a couple of months ago, has adopted an equivocal approach to opening its borders to mainland China with a cap on visitors to the border at 60,000 per day. The policy will apply also to Hong Kong visitors traveling north too. Anyone who crosses the border must be able to pass the negative P.C.R. test.

In Jeju Island, a South Korean tourist destination that was once popular with Chinese visitors, a lot of companies are now in a wait-and-see state. The government has stopped any direct flights from China to Jeju Island and is redirecting tourists to the major airport located in Seoul and travelers must undergo an P.C.R. test at the time of arrival and be quarantined in the event that they are discovered as being sick.

"We are focused on alternative markets for the time being, such as Japan and Southeast Asia," said Kim Chang-hyo, a senior official with Jeju Island Tourism Association. Jeju Island Tourism Association. South Korea has also stopped processing visas for short-term stays for Chinese citizens, with the exception of visas for business or diplomatic visits.

Thailand's response to the issue has been more welcoming. One minister in the government suggested giving vaccination boosters for Chinese visitors. Another advocated Thais not to "bully" Chinese visitors based on unsubstantiated concerns about Covid.

However, the Thai government is also taking steps to stop its hospital system from being overwhelmed with a sudden outbreak, since China's borders are open. Visitors to Thailand require two shots of the Covid vaccine. The government has advised wearing a mask during public places. Visitors must also have medical insurance that covers Covid treatment in the event of getting sick.

Thailand anticipates 300,000 Chinese tourists during The first quarter of 2023 according to Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of Thailand's Tourism Authority. "There are only 15 flights per week compared to before Covid, where there are around 400 flights per week," Supasorn told reporters. Prior to the outbreak, more than one million Chinese tourists visited China every month.

The Maetaeng Elephant Park in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai, employees said they were thrilled to observe Chinese tourists returning. At present, however they're full of South Koreans, who have mostly taken over those Chinese as their primary customers.

"It is all still wait and see," said Thipsuda Poungmalee, who is a marketing and sales manager in the Park.

The city of Osaka, Japan, where Chinese tourists can be featured in the media for what is known as what Japanese refer to as "bakugai" -- or an explosion of buying -- optimism is also sluggish. "Of course, it has been much quieter without tourists from China, the city has been less lively," said Makoto Tsuda who is an official of the Prefecture of Osaka's Tourism Promotion office. Prior to the pandemic, almost 50% of foreign tourists to the city were from China according to him.

Japan is now requiring travelers from China to take an negative P.C.R. test prior to their arrival and to take another test after they arrive. Test before arriving and to take another test when they arrive. Tsuda said he expects to have more tourists from China but not immediately.

"I do think there is an additional hurdle compared with visitors from other countries, so it may not be a sudden burst of incoming tourists from China, but more gradual," Mr. Tsuda said.

Some of those who arrived who arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on Sunday was Yan Yan, a 55-year-old clothing wholesaler who flew across the border from South Carolina with her husband.

They waited patiently for the check of their bags on an Xiamen Airlines flight to Tianjin as the lines in the jammed departures hall moved upwards.

She would go to visit them in Tianjin each year. However, this is her first trip back since the onset of the pandemic around 2020. The lack of flights and sudden cancellations and a string of tests for quarantines, as well as P.C.R. tests, had frightened her from applying until recently. One of her acquaintances who had returned to China was able to complete traveling for the whole trip between the quarantine facilities.

"Now that the restrictions have loosened, it's much better," she told me in addition to being happy to be able to visit her family after having been able to recover from the difficult bouts with Covid a few weeks ago.
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