After three years, mainland China opened sea and land crossings with Hong Kong and ended a requirement for incoming travellers to quarantine, dismantling a final pillar of a zero-Covid policy
that had shielded China's people from the virus but also cut them off from the rest of the world.
Investors hope the reopening will eventually reinvigorate a $17-trillion economy suffering its lowest growth in nearly half a century. But the abrupt policy reversal has triggered a massive wave of infections that is overwhelming some hospitals and causing business disruptions. Many Chinese are also expected to start travelling abroad, along-awaited shift for tourist spots in countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, though several governments - worried about China's COVID spike - are imposing curbs on travellers from the country.
At the Beijing Capital International Airport, families and friends exchanged emotional hugs and greetings with passengers arriving from Hong Kong, Warsaw and Frankfurt at the airport's terminal 3, meetings at the arrival hall that would have been impossible just a day ago due to a now cancelled requirement for travellers from abroad to quarantine.
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