China to resume issuing all visa types for first time since 2020

China says it's going to begin issuing all classes of visas to foreigners from Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

Travellers queue on the Shenzhen border crossing with Hong Kong in January [File: Peter Parks/AFP]

China says it's going to begin issuing all classes of visas to foreigners from Wednesday, lifting cross-border management measures it imposed three years in the past at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China stopped issuing visas to foreigners, and passports to its folks, in early 2020 because the illness ravaged the central metropolis of Wuhan.

The resumption of visa providers removes the final of the cross-border management measures launched due to the virus.

“Resuming purposes for all sorts of visas removes one other vital barrier within the resumption of regular journey between the UK and China,” Tom Simpson, managing director of China-Britain Enterprise Council, informed the Reuters information company.

“The [council] has already seen enterprise journey purposes and arrivals start to extend since January, nonetheless, this information ought to result in a big enhance in visits particularly for tourism.”

Areas in China that required no visas earlier than the pandemic will revert to visa-free entry, the international ministry mentioned on Tuesday. It will embrace the southern vacationer island of Hainan and cruise ships passing by Shanghai port.

Visa-free entry to the southern manufacturing hub of Guangdong for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau may even begin once more.

The ministry additionally mentioned foreigners holding visas issued earlier than March 28, 2020 which can be nonetheless inside their validity dates would additionally be capable to enter China.

Beijing began taking purposes for passports from its residents on January 8 after abruptly abandoning its zero-COVID technique on the finish of final yr. It additionally withdrew its longstanding advisory towards all international journey.

Knowledge from Chinese language on-line journey businesses Ctrip and Qunar, particularly throughout the Lunar New Yr in direction of the tip of January, reported vital will increase in bookings and searches for flights to the resort of Sanya in Hainan.

Earlier than the pandemic, China was the world’s largest marketplace for outbound journey, having gone from 4.5 million travellers in 2000 to 150 million in 2018, in keeping with the United Nations World Tourism Group.

Chinese language are additionally the world’s greatest spenders when on vacation, accounting for $277bn or 16 p.c of the world’s complete spending that very same yr.