chinas longawaited border reopening the final step in its dismantling of covid zero is set to spark a homecoming rush for many diaspora though a full rebound in travel is likely to take longerstarting sunday china no longer requires quarantine for arrivals after authorities ditched the policy that along with the exorbitant cost of air fares amid severe capacity constraints was a major deterrent for travelersread alsoworkers clash with police at covid test kit factory in chinascores of workers have clashed with police at a covid test kit factory in china video spreading on social media showed sunday as the country navigates a path out of its hardline virus policycovid19 thailand introduced new entry regulations as china reopens borderthe civil aviation authority of thailand caat said in a statement on saturday that starting early monday all foreign arrivals starting early on monday must prove they are vaccinated or provide a letter certifying that they have recovered from covid within six monthschina releases new covid19 control protocol calls for monitoring mutated variantschinas state council joint prevention and control mechanism against covid19 released the 10th edition of the virus prevention and control protocol on saturday global times reported the new plan has stressed on monitoring of mutated variants and early warning as well as the protection of keychina welcomes first batch of international travellers following scrapping of quarantine normschina on sunday welcomed international travellers and returning residents without the need to quarantine for the first time in three years even as infections surge after it scrapped its stringent zerocovid policy the first flights under chinas new no quarantine rules for internationalchina ends quarantine for overseas travellerschina lifted quarantine requirements for inbound travellers on sunday ending almost three years of selfimposed isolation even as the country battles a surge in covid cases beijing last month began a dramatic dismantling of a hardline zerocovid strategy that had enforced mandatory quarantines andwhile anyone wanting to enter the country will still need a 48hour negative covid test result the substantial easing in border controls just two weeks before the lunar new year holiday marks an end to beijings efforts to keep out the virusthe immediate impact is a surge of overseas chinese coming back home many of whom havent seen family for yearsi havent been home in almost two years so the announcement felt like a fever dream said connor zhao a 25yearold consultant who lives in san francisco hes currently on holiday in bangkok and will fly to qingdao on jan 19 with his trip including a layover in hong kong which has more available flights into the mainland im very excited to see my parents getting to spend chinese new year with them means a lot to me he saidbut the influx of travelers heading into the country is unlikely to be matched by a surge in demand for overseas trips the flow of chinese tourists previously a 280 billion spending force in global holiday hotspots from paris to tokyo will take