Hong Kong CNN — After three years of pandemic border restrictions, China is fully reopening to foreign visitors – including tourists.
In a Chinese-language statement posted on its website Monday, China’s Embassy in the United States said the country would resume issuing all categories of visas for foreigners from Wednesday.
Travelers holding multi-year visas issued before March 28, 2020 – the date China closed its borders to most overseas visitors in an attempt to keep Covid-19 out – would be allowed to use them so long as they had not expired, the statement said.
Chinese authorities last month declared a “major and decisive victory” in their handling of the coronavirus outbreak that had swept the country following an abrupt relaxation of Beijing’s “zero-Covid” policy late last year.
Monday’s announcement also comes as Beijing seeks to revive the world’s second-largest economy and its domestic tourist industry after a year of tepid growth exacerbated by pandemic measures.