Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, and millions of people will be travelling to their hometowns around the country. The CCP hasn't banned travel during Chinese New Year this year, but they are encouraging people not to travel.
If there are enough covid cases that occur during the Olympics, there is concern that Beijing will close its borders and that re-entry may be difficult for Beijing residents who visited their families in regions outside of Beijing during the week-long New Year holiday.
Prior to spring 2020 and covid, my husband and I travelled to Beijing every spring to spend Chinese New Year with family, and I had an agreement with my employer that I would work in Beijing every spring semester so that we could be with family each year as my mother in law and father in law were aging and this allowed us to spend some time with them every year. That stopped abruptly in spring 2020, of course, with Covid.
We haven't been able to return yet, but are hoping that we can do so by this summer. At the present time, foreigners can enter if they have a Chinese green card (residence permit) - which I have - they are issued for work or family reasons. For awhile, they were requiring negative antibody tests plus a PCR test to enter Beijing and obtain a health declaration QR code (after the 14 day quarantine and another negative PCR test). The guidelines keep changing, so not sure what they will be about a month or two after the Olympics and its impact. We'll know more then.
Good article below on some of the vaccines that China is developing - some with Germany - and its own mRNA vaccine under development, and the challenges they are facing with the Winter Olympics.
China’s zero-COVID strategy: what happens next?
"China’s stringent zero-COVID strategy is likely to face its toughest test yet in the next few weeks, as millions of people travel around the country for Chinese New Year, and the Winter Olympics begin in Beijing."
If there are enough covid cases that occur during the Olympics, there is concern that Beijing will close its borders and that re-entry may be difficult for Beijing residents who visited their families in regions outside of Beijing during the week-long New Year holiday.
Prior to spring 2020 and covid, my husband and I travelled to Beijing every spring to spend Chinese New Year with family, and I had an agreement with my employer that I would work in Beijing every spring semester so that we could be with family each year as my mother in law and father in law were aging and this allowed us to spend some time with them every year. That stopped abruptly in spring 2020, of course, with Covid.
We haven't been able to return yet, but are hoping that we can do so by this summer. At the present time, foreigners can enter if they have a Chinese green card (residence permit) - which I have - they are issued for work or family reasons. For awhile, they were requiring negative antibody tests plus a PCR test to enter Beijing and obtain a health declaration QR code (after the 14 day quarantine and another negative PCR test). The guidelines keep changing, so not sure what they will be about a month or two after the Olympics and its impact. We'll know more then.
Good article below on some of the vaccines that China is developing - some with Germany - and its own mRNA vaccine under development, and the challenges they are facing with the Winter Olympics.
China’s zero-COVID strategy: what happens next?
"China’s stringent zero-COVID strategy is likely to face its toughest test yet in the next few weeks, as millions of people travel around the country for Chinese New Year, and the Winter Olympics begin in Beijing."
