covid 19 and vaccination case in China (Hong Kong - Peking - Guangdong - Shanghai)

[inv]

hi, I do not want to get vaccinated. 

So, can someone help me about what would happen if I would have a trip to china (stated regions in the topic)

my basic queries :

 

1) is such a trip forbidden currently?

2) will Chinese authority require visitors to show PCR result for a defined timely manner?

 

Thanks.

[malazann]

you haven't mentioned where you are coming from. pretty important

 

[vellocet]

China won't let you enter without proof of vaccination.  You also get 3 weeks quarantine at a hotel at your expense, and a further 1 week quarantine at home.  They also are not allowing tourist visas, business visas, etc. to enter.  Only residence permits.  

[Demonic_Duck]

Depending where you're traveling from, the types of vaccines accepted will differ. Currently, for most places they still (for some stupid fucking reason) require Chinese-manufactured vaccines. For USA and some other places, they also accept Pfizer, Moderna, J&J.

 

Eventually (as in some time between tomorrow and the heat death of the universe) they'll inevitably change those rules to be more sensible (e.g. allowing the same vaccines they've already fucking approved for use traveling from US but for other places), but if you want to remain completely unvaccinated, you can kiss goodbye to any trips to China in the foreseeable future.

[inv]

a bit interesting. 

ok, but may I lastly ask , whether all these cases are same for every type of visas?

it seems I should cancel the trip for a while.

 

Thank you very much. 

 

(I do not consider getting vaccinated for next 15 years or more) (also,hopefully I won't have to get vaccinated for the defined amount of time)

[Demonic_Duck]

By "trip" it sounds like you mean for travel purposes, which as far as I know isn't possible at all right now, regardless of vaccination status or where you're traveling from. It will probably be quite a while (perhaps a year or more) before it's possible again, and even longer (perhaps several years) until it's possible without a vaccine.

 

On 9/17/2021 at 2:38 PM, inv said:

I do not consider getting vaccinated for next 15 years or more

 

Is there any specific reason why? There's a very broad medical consensus that vaccines are safe, and most of them are halal too.

[abcdefg]

On 9/17/2021 at 8:38 AM, inv said:

it seems I should cancel the trip for a while.

 

Yes, yes, yes. That's what we have all been telling you for several weeks now. 

 

Multiple threads, identical advice.

[inv]

On 9/18/2021 at 12:24 AM, abcdefg said:

Yes, yes, yes. That's what we have all been telling you for several weeks now. 

 

Multiple threads, identical advice.

but...

have not you reasoned your answer specifically for me?

if not, please (re)explain ?

 

I (had) started to think that you were in the pool of those people who were in belief of (dogmatic) stigma,which is unrealitsic to me.

anyway, I do not care such ideas. You do not know me and I do not recommend that you make any specific pattern of such comment(s) for the people ypu do not know.

[inv]

On 9/17/2021 at 6:22 PM, Demonic_Duck said:

Is there any specific reason why? There's a very broad medical consensus that vaccines are safe, and most of them are halal too.

I won't discuss this. sorry ,

@Demonic_Duck, I expect kind understanding. 

[Jan Finster]

On 9/18/2021 at 10:19 AM, inv said:

I won't discuss this. sorry ,

@Demonic_Duck, I expect kind understanding. 

 

You do not have to explain this. At the same time, China will not explain to you why they will not let you in, if you are not vaccinated. You choose, they choose. If I am not vaccinated or cannot prove that I have recovered from COVID, I cannot enter my gym. Simple! Their choice! "Kind understanding" goes both ways...

[inv]

On 9/18/2021 at 1:17 PM, Jan Finster said:

If I am not vaccinated or cannot prove that I have recovered from COVID

by the way, yes ,I had recovered from covid approximately 1 year ago.

but I am not sure whether there is a specific (limited) amount of time from the time I got the disease and recovered it up to now. 

I think there is. But could you explain which amount of time chinese authority will accept?

...

(I am eventually about to cancel my  (own) plan, though, there might be someone else who plans to have a trip to china so it may help them)

[inv]

On 9/18/2021 at 1:17 PM, Jan Finster said:

You do not have to explain this. At the same time, China will not explain to you why they will not let you in, if you are not vaccinated.

I understand. thanks.

[abcdefg]

On 9/18/2021 at 3:12 AM, inv said:

but...

have not you reasoned your answer specifically for me?

if not, please (re)explain ?

 

Sorry, @inv -- I'm through trying to advise you or explain things to you. (Unfollow your content.)

[Jellyfish]

On 9/17/2021 at 2:38 PM, inv said:

ok, but may I lastly ask , whether all these cases are same for every type of visas?

Here is my understanding of the current visa requirements for different types of visa (best you double check all of this since it changes all the time and varies greatly depending on where you're flying from and what your nationality is, plus also obviously I might be wrong about some or all of the below):

 

- People who have got a Chinese vaccine: May apply for a visa.

- People who have a residence permit: May enter if they have a Chinese vaccine. RPs expired after 30 March require you to reapply for a visa at your local Chinese embassy. Nationals of certain countries (a very short list, I'm only aware of France but I think there are a few others) may apply for a visa with a valid RP with no vaccination restrictions afaik - not 100% sure about this since it doesn't apply to me anyway, my country is not on the list.

- People applying for a business visa: It's possible but extremely hard. Your employer needs to contact regional government in China to apply for a visa for you, stating why you need to travel urgently. I think only huge companies and people in leading positions can get this. No vaccine restrictions afaik.

- No tourism, family, student visas being issued at all.

 

So, as you can see, not all routes require you to have a vaccine just now but this is just because China currently doesn't accept foreign vaccines and Chinese vaccines aren't widely available outside of China just now. I'd expect that's going to change when/if there are mutual agreements on vaccines between China and other countries. China is really pushing domestic uptake of vaccines just now so I doubt they're going to let unvaccinated foreigners in while telling their citizens they have to get vaccinated. So if you don't want to get vaccinated, I don't think trying to wait it out and hope for changes in visa requirements that would be more favourable to unvaccinated travellers is a very promising approach.

 

On that note, your recovered status may hinder rather than help you. If they pick up antibodies during the antibody test and you have no vaccine to explain the antibodies you might have your health code denied.

 

Generally, the process (in theory) is: contact your local Chinese embassy/Chinese visa centre. Get your visa via RP or PU letter if you have either. Book flights. You can only book direct flights if your country has any so expect hideous prices. The day before your flight, do all the Covid tests known to man (antigen, PRC, proof of vaccine if applicable). If they're all clear, you get your health code and can fly. If not, wave goodbye to your flight, you can't fly despite your visa.

 

So, the bottom line is: contact your Chinese embassy/visa centre and give them everything you have. If they say no then you can't fly, there are no shortcuts.

[NinKenDo]

Honestly, as many people here have already mentioned, vaccinated or not, I wouldn't be making plans any time soon that involve going to China.

 

There's one thing you might consider looking into too, when China finally starts opening up, and that's what vaccine requirements your own country has. I remember as a child there was a time that here in Australia, if you were visited a certain country, you needed to get certain vaccines as mandated by the AUSTRALIAN government, so that you were less of a risk for reintroducing certain pathogens I guess.

 

I'm sure certain exemptions were available back then, but I fully expect this policy will be reintroduced here when borders reopen, the mandatory vaccination crowd can hardly wipe their salivation at the prospect of following the US example here at the moment, a totally unnecessary and dangerous precedent that I shudder to think is probably inevitable at this point. An aside, but my point was about watching for exit as well as entry requirements in the future. If you really plan to avoid vaccination for 15 years, then you'll want to try and slip out after borders open and before exit mandates come in.

[Flickserve]

For Hong Kong, read this link.

 

The country from which you travel from is important and relevant.

 

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_US/covid-19/hong-kong-travel-restrictions.html

[mikelove]

Related to this, the FT reports that the US is about to reopen travel from Europe, but only for vaccinated travelers. Honestly you can't do much of anything fun in New York City at this point without showing proof of vaccination anyway, it's required to enter restaurants / bars / theaters / etc, but it's going to be an interesting test of the system because now every random little bar in the West Village is going to need to have a way to confirm that somebody from Estonia actually got their jab.

 

It also sounds like there's a strong chance they'll be required for domestic travel soon as well; a quirk of US law is that it's way, way easier for the federal government to impose vaccine mandates on unambiguously national things like interstate airline travel than it is to impose them in places like schools that are regulated at the state / local level, so even though it'd be way easier logistically to improve vaccine rates by pushing them in schools / offices (and they're attempting to do that for the latter at least), legally speaking this is one of the few tools they have to incentivize reluctant people to get vaccinated.

 

But basically the thrust of things here is that life is going to get progressively more limiting and inconvenient if you're not vaccinated, and even Fox News has polls suggesting that 2/3 of Americans agree with at least some level of vaccine mandates, so given that vaccines are extremely, extremely safe, even if you're convinced you don't need a vaccine it may be worth getting one anyway simply to avoid being constantly bothered about it. (if you don't trust mRNA then get an adenovirus vaccine like J&J or AZ; it's decades-old technology, may be less effective than mRNA but it still "counts" for purposes of vaccine mandates)

[vellocet]

On 9/20/2021 at 10:20 PM, mikelove said:

But basically the thrust of things here is that life is going to get progressively more limiting and inconvenient if you're not vaccinated powerful.

The Mayor of San Francisco just imposed a ban on gatherings without masks and then went out to a bar and partied without a mask.  You see, a band she really liked was playing, so it was OK to break her own rules.