Going to China during Covid?

[Pizzamaster]

If I get accepted to a University in China, will I be moving there or will it just be online? Also wanted to know if non students are allowed in China right now? If I go, I would want to bring my wife and kid of course.

[alantin]

May not be easy.

Our company had a few people visit a customer in China in the end of last year and it was quite an ordeal.

 

Getting the visas in itself was difficult. Usually an invitation from our branch office in China is required for the visa but this time that wasn't enough and the invitation had to come from the province. All kinds of requirements also kept changing so that the whole trip was postponed once and the second time a few days before the flight they changed again and just the negative Covid test wasn't enough anymore with another antibody test being required. The guys were literally waiting for boarding at the airport when they finally got all the paperwork in order. After that another tribulation was waiting for them. After arrival, there were a lot of QR codes and test involved before they were hustled into a quarantine hotel where they had to spend the next two weeks in their separate rooms and unable to leave the rooms. Then, when they got out of quarantine, they had one weekend of freedom before having to cross to another province, which led to another quarantine. Although this one was a little bit less strict. They were allowed to work together in a meeting room set aside for them, but they were not allowed to meet anyone else.

 

So yeah, non-students were allowed at least two months ago, but I don't think we are sending anyone else there anytime soon...
We are also expecting a requirement for vaccination to be added to the list of requirements some time sooner rather than later...

I don't know anything official.

All I know comes from talking with the person who arranges our business travel and hearing the experiences of these three travelers.

[ChTTay]

Schools were still managing to recruit teachers from abroad at one point but it all changes so quickly. Right now probably much harder due to new variants and worries about those. 
 

I’d be tempted to keep making pizza for another year then try. 

[Demonic_Duck]

If you're in the UK (or various other countries), all visa applications and flights are currently suspended due to us being a plague island. The ease with which you'll be able to obtain a visa and fly out right now are very much contingent on where you are, ranging from "doable but a massive pain in the ass" to "literally impossible".

[889]

Canada has just joined the UK on the Plague Country Blacklist.

[chinadude2006]

On 01/02/2021 at 12:57 PM, 889 said:

Canada has just joined the UK on the Plague Country Blacklist.

 

Is there a list of countries that have been banned? It would be useful for people who are considering going or returning to China.

[FlyingSesame]

I think you may have issues with getting visa. As far as I know, even foreigners with work permit can't enter the country now. The quarantine requirement is very strict. Many places require 14 days hotel quarantine plus 14 days of self-isolation at home. 

[mungouk]

On 2/2/2021 at 1:55 PM, chinadude2006 said:

Is there a list of countries that have been banned?

 

The IATA website has a unified collection of up-to-date* regulations (click on China on the map), although it talks about what visas are allowed, where/when they were issued,  and PCR test requirements etc. This database is used by airlines to decide who is allowed to board their flights.

 

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/international-travel-document-news/1580226297.htm

 

In theory you can still enter from some countries with a visa, except currently Bangladesh, Belgium, France, India, Italy, Philippines, Russia and the UK. 

* I see Canada hasn't been added to the list yet, as of 4 February.

 

But in practice some of the visa application centres are currently closed. You can check on https://www.visaforchina.org/ by individual country, for those 45 countries that use the Visa For China service.