People in Beijing open up about China’s zero-Covid approach and reveal where they dream of visiting once borders reopen
- Residents of China’s capital generally support the authorities’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic while harbouring dreams of overseas travel
- A teaching assistant wants to see penguins in Antarctica, a housewife hopes to resume trips in Asia, an American feels safe in China and won’t go home soon
That leaves people in Beijing and other Chinese cities resigned to an indefinite further period of border restrictions and stringent controls on their movements.
Currently, Beijing residents who return to the capital from other parts of China must provide a negative Covid-19 test that is less than 48 hours old and possess a digital contact-tracing pass that shows a green code proving they have not visited an area experiencing an outbreak of the viral disease in the previous two weeks.
Foreign visitors and residents returning from overseas must undergo 21 days of quarantine, the first 14 in a designated hotel and, for those with a residential address, the rest at home. After that, there is a seven-day monitoring period during which the returnee must report on the state of their health to their neighbourhood watch office.
