and 11 days of near complete isolation from the outside world, the government of china finally flung open the country s borders. it s a major piece of the stunning reversal of xi jinping s zero covid policy. gone are mass testing regimens and draconian quarantine requirements for chinese citizens and international travels gone too are the shutdowns that shut down city life for months on end. most of the headlines have focused on the wave of koed cases that has predictably sprung up in the country, overwhelming hospitals and snarling production on factory floors but it s bigger than a rash of covid cases. troubling though they are. as the economist reports, china s reopening signifies a massive jolt to the global economy. in the near term, economic activity may be slow to rebound, but soon enough, chinese
to families who have been separated for three years. on monday beijing announced it will scrap quarantine requirements for incoming travelers on january 8th. let s go to cnn s paula hancocks live in seoul. paula, has there been a rush to book travel into china? certainly there s a rush to book travel out of china. let s talk a little bit more about how people are reacting. reporter: whitney, what we re expecting to see is by the end of january when you have lunar new year, a very important poly day in china, we could see a massive influx of travelers. it has to be pointed out that the international airlines and airlines within china will have to ramp up their operations, and that doesn t just happen overnight as well. but just anecdotally, tripwire.com, one online booking site in china, they said it hit a three-year peak for the online searches. for traveling outside of china
reporter: pam, there is a whole slate of changes the covid restrictions. from january 8th, the country is dropping quarantine requirements for all international arrivals. these are major changes. and a big move towards the formal end of zero covid and the ending of china s nearly three years of isolation. pam, to understand why this is such a big deal, we have to look at what the reality has been for years. china has been severely limiting who can go in and it of china with strict border controls, flights have been limited and expensive, arrivals have to go through quarantine and government facilities. i went through multiple quarantines myself, including 21 days earlier this year. and we re talking about harsh quarantines. you get sorted into a facility, no opening your door except for food pickups and covid tests. we don t know how many flights will be allowed to enter the country, or how easily chinese officials will be able to travel out, and tourism in you an
border for the first time in about three years. in the new year beijing plans to drop its quarantine requirements for inbound international travelers and also removing restrictions on airline capacity and number of flights that had let s into the country. let s go to cnn s selina wang from beijing. a huge deal following end of zero cove ed policy and follows an ending of releasing any data, regarding the numbers of covid cases there. how significant is it that they re lifting all of these restrictions? reporter: poppy, this is huge and people breathing a sigh of relief. biggest change from january 8th the country is dropping quarantine for all international arrivals. authorities promising to gratly restart tourism for chinese citizens. inbound need a 48-hour negative covid test before boarding but dropped all the our super