Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Anything and everything about Thailand
Post Reply
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21458
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1305 times

Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Post by Gaybutton »

Given China's Covid policies and restrictions, I don't envision tour groups to be permitted the remainder of this year or even at least several months into 2023.
__________________________________________________________

Mainland China’s total daily Covid cases soar above Shanghai lockdown highs

by Evelyn Cheng

November 24, 2022

BEIJING — Mainland China reported more than 31,000 Covid infections for Wednesday, including cases without symptoms.

That surpassed the 29,317 high seen in mid-April, during the Shanghai lockdown, according to CNBC calculations of Wind Information data. 

However, daily Covid infections with symptoms remain well below the high seen in April. Nearly 90% or more of total Covid cases reported in recent days have been asymptomatic, the data showed.

The southern city of Guangzhou, the national capital of Beijing and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing have been the hardest hit in the latest Covid wave.

But nearly all of China’s 31 province-level regions have reported new Covid infections, with and without symptoms, each day.

Since the weekend, six Covid-related deaths have been reported as of Wednesday, mostly in Beijing.

China’s stringent Covid controls have weighed on sentiment and business activity. National GDP barely grew during the second quarter due to the Shanghai lockdowns. As of the end of the third quarter, growth for the year was up by just 3% from a year ago — well below the official target of around 5.5% announced in March.

Factories located near Covid outbreaks have tried to maintain operations using what’s called closed-loop management, which typically requires staff to live on-site.

Business representatives have noted difficulties in getting workers from locked down neighborhoods to factories, while staff living at production sites for too long often become fatigued.

During the latest Covid wave, Apple supplier Foxconn’s iPhone factory in the city of Zhengzhou has drawn attention for videos of renewed worker unrest shared on social media. It was unclear how many of the factory’s roughly 200,000 staff were involved, or whether there was any impact to production.

Foxconn said Wednesday that some new hires had appealed to the company about a work allowance, while stating that contrary to speculation, new hires would only move into disinfected dormitories.

Separately, Zhengzhou said those living in the central part of the city should not leave their homes for five days beginning Friday while authorities conducted mass virus testing.

China this month trimmed quarantine times and has announced other measures to try to make Covid controls more targeted. But authorities have emphasized their zero-Covid policy, while there are concerns whether the public health system could handle a surge in infections.

Targeted Covid measures

The latest Covid controls on in-person business and apartment building lockdowns are scattered across parts of China, a country of 1.4 billion people. Fewer measures are publicly announced, while restrictions are increasingly targeted and can range from just a few days — to weeks or longer.

For example, Shanghai Disneyland said it plans to resume operations on Friday, after suspending operations due to Covid on Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, despite tighter restrictions in Beijing’s business district, Universal Beijing Resort on the city outskirts remains open, after a five-day closure that ended Oct. 31.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/24/mainlan ... highs.html
gerefan
Posts: 727
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:33 am
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 87 times

Re: Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Post by gerefan »

1. That doesn’t tally with this site which says that China had only 2719 cases yesterday(Wednesday). The figures from this site indicate that 2000+ cases per day is about average.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

2.Even IF they had 31000 cases and a population of 1.4 billion people this means that 0.00002% of the population caught covid that day. God help us all!

Still it fills “news” outlets!
Jun

Re: Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Post by Jun »

All I can assume is the leadership in Beijing are using Covid as an excuse to move back to less freedom of movement for their people. As used to be the case in some communist countries.

I'm not sure how long this will last for, but whist it does last, it seems like a good idea to visit interesting tourist destinations that might otherwise be teeming with Chinese.
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21458
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1305 times

Re: Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 10:49 pm All I can assume is the leadership in Beijing are using Covid as an excuse to move back to less freedom of movement for their people. As used to be the case in some communist countries.
I was under the impression that China does restrict which countries their citizens are allowed to visit. Obviously Thailand and Laos are among the countries China allows, but I don't know which others.

I wonder who in China is the person(s) who gets to decide for everyone else where they can and cannot visit and what they're afraid of if someone wants to visit a country not on their approved list.
Jun

Re: Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Post by Jun »

Gaybutton wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:22 amI was under the impression that China does restrict which countries their citizens are allowed to visit.
Until covid, we had loads of Chinese tourists coming to the UK, despite high UK Visa fees. They had their favourite destinations, like Bicester Village for shopping. Bicester Village is the only UK railway station I know of where the announcements are in English, Chinese and Arabic. [No I don't visit Bicester Village, but with free parking, it does make a nice park and ride for getting into Oxford. On an almost empty train too, as most have just got off it]

Obviously the Chinese quarantine rules killed off most of the tourist trade. We still had plenty of Chinese students coming to the UK, perhaps even more than normal when alternative destinations such as Australia had entry restrictions.
However, in 2022, even the number of Chinese students seems lower, at least where I am.
KeithAmbrose
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2022 5:29 am
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 5 times

Re: Chinese tour groups - don't expext them any time soon

Post by KeithAmbrose »

Jun wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 2:54 am
Gaybutton wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 12:22 amI was under the impression that China does restrict which countries their citizens are allowed to visit.
Until covid, we had loads of Chinese tourists coming to the UK, despite high UK Visa fees. They had their favourite destinations, like Bicester Village for shopping. Bicester Village is the only UK railway station I know of where the announcements are in English, Chinese and Arabic. [No I don't visit Bicester Village, but with free parking, it does make a nice park and ride for getting into Oxford.
And Marylebone Station, where the Oxford trains go from . The previous hordes of Chinese made Bicester Village a no go area
Post Reply