Traveling to the Philippines

[Steingletscher]

I don't know how long China's travel embargo on the Philippines is going to last, but how would it be possible to travel there from the mainland? I'm guessing I could go to Hong Kong and then get a ticket there, but I'm unsure. Would the Chinese government do anything (such as not let me back in) if they see in my passport that I travelled there?

Though I'm a US citizen, I have family there and would like to see what my options are.

[liuzhou]

No problem. Yes, you can go from HK.

It's all just bluster and wind. They aren't going to stop you coming back to China.

If they adopted that policy there would be few places anyone could go.

[skylee]

What travel embargo?

[skylee]

I could only find these -

http://www.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota/note-Philippines.htm

http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn/gate/big5/cs.mfa.gov.cn/gbxx/yz/flb/

[jirbau]

I don't think China's government will prevent anyone that went to the Philippines to go to China. I'm from the Philippines and I just got my visa to study in China easily.

[Steingletscher]

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/

Watch the video entitled "Spat with China..." under the Asia-Pacific heading. You may not be able to watch it in China since it may be hosted on Youtube.

[jirbau]

They are preventing people in China to go Philippines but not preventing people in the Philippines to go to China. Well, that is what I think but have no personal experience or know anyone from the Philippines being prevented to enter China.

[skylee]

I see. Thank you. But since the Philippines can rely on tourists from other places to replace Chinese tourists, the withdrawal of Chinese tour groups should not be a big problem. One of the win-win situations might be that Mainland Chinese tourists go to other south-east asian countries like Thailand, the increasing Russian / Korean tourists go to the Philippines, neither countries budge regarding the border disputes and nobody suffers any economic losses.

Other places (Australia, UK, Canada, Hong Kong) have also issued advice against travelling to (part of) the Philippines because of safety concerns. But I understand that such advice is not the same as withdrawing tour groups.

[jirbau]

That is true. Hopefully the Philippine economy does not get affected too much. The Philippines did not prevent Filipino citizens from going to China and China being China is a big country so it can survive without tourist from the Philippines.

I live in Manila and I haven't seen any violence or safety concerns regarding this issue but just a peaceful rally. Also, there are plenty of Filipino citizens with Chinese bloodlines here so I don't believe that there is a threat to Chinese citizens. Hopefully, the same can be said for Filipino citizens in China since I will be going to Beijing soon.

[Steingletscher]

But it isn't a win-win situation since the vast majority of the money came from China and the rising tourists from other countries is nowhere near enough to offset the money.

Most of the safety concerns are likely due to the Islamist separatist groups on the southern island of Mindanao, far from the majority of the population--a situation entirely removed from the diplomatic dispute.

Though to get there, I probably would have to stop in Hong Kong since a direct flight from the mainland seems at the present unlikely.

[Silent]

Other places (Australia, UK, Canada, Hong Kong) have also issued advice against travelling to (part of) the Philippines because of safety concerns. But I understand that such advice is not the same as withdrawing tour groups.

Admittedly only a quick look doesn't reveal anything new. Warnings for Mindanao are already in place for ages. Also terrorism isn't new for the Philippines.