[BREAKING] China to resume issuing all visa

On March 14th, various Chinese embassies abroad, including Luxembourg have issued a notice stating the following:

“To further facilitate the exchanges of people between China and foreign countries, according to the Chinese government's decision, the Chinese Embassy in Luxembourg will adjust the Mesures of Chinese visa and entry into China for foreigners from 00:00 (Beijing Time) on March 15, 2023 as follows:

• Holders of Chinese visas issued before March 28, 2020 can enter China before the expiry date of their Chinese visas;
• The Embassy starts issuing all types of Chinese visas including tourism and private business for foreigners corresponding to legal regulations;
• The country will also resume visa-free entry for several places, including Hainan Island and for cruise ships that stop in Shanghai, and into Guangdong, for people from Hong Kong and Macau, China’s embassy in the US said in a statement.

As for this moment, the Chinese embassies in both the Netherlands as well as Belgium haven’t posted anything regarding the updates, but we expect this to happen sometime this week.

On January 8th, China eliminated quarantine regulations for incoming travelers, marking a significant move towards reopening its borders which had been closed for almost three years. This was a sudden shift from the country's previous zero-Covid policy, prompted by widespread complaints against the strict restrictions. According to the Ministry of Public Security's data, in 2022 only 115.7 million inbound and outbound trips were recorded, which is less than one-fifth of the number in 2019 before the pandemic. Furthermore, mainland residents made only 64.6 million trips last year, also about one-fifth of the pre-Covid levels.