Has anyone seen any mention of re-instatement of the Shenzhen Visa on arrival ? (*)

I don't want to rush to apply for a new mainland multi-entry visa before dust settles, but it sure would be great to be able to go to SZ from Hong Kong in the meantime, be it for a few days.


(*) Posted this under the HK forum earlier, but I realize this is more Mainland policy than HK policy, and there is lots of crowd wisdom in this thread.

Flight price is the determining factor, as is routes that are viable to fly without a visa. My suggestion of going to Almaty and taking a 20hr bus to Urumqi wasn’t well received. Sometimes I forget not everyone is a Flyertalker…

Maybe they waited until now to move from COVID ZERO for a good reason, and it was deliberate that they didn't do so in late Spring / early Summer, like many are saying they should have done:
Supposedly they do have an issue with corpses after all. People are purportedly parked up outside crematoria with Buick GL8 mini-vans with multiple bodies inside waiting for a spot to open up, and now that the temps are low, the decay is slowed down considerably.
Fast-tracking for an immediate spot is supposedly costing ~RMB 50'000 right now.
Also heard that the govt. cold storage facilities in Beijing that are normally used for storing perishable food items are now being used for cadavers.

That's what I am hearing anyways...who knows if true.

Curious. So new visas can be issued, but old ones are still not valid :/ That's unfortunate.

I suggest a little more patience will help clarify what's going to happen. After all if we go back 4 weeks none of this current situation could have been predicted, and as we know the Chinese government rarely give out all the necessary information in one go.

What’s the good reason for waiting then? Corpses would pile up in May just like they are now. If they did it then, however they would have saved the mental health of millions as well as not ruined their economy for the entire year.

There was no good reason to do what they did to me and others in shanghai this past April. It was simply a power play by the glorious chairman. .

We can try to do as much post facto rationalization as possible, truth of the matter is that we won't ever find out the real reason and Winnie calls all the shots

The post about reissuing visas was made by NIA which is in charge of issuing visas/residence permits within China. New visas issued outside of China are governed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a completely different branch of the Chinese government.

Well they did manage to vaccinate a few more over-80s according to the BBC:

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/2048/c...us_bars-nc.png

https://www.bbc.com/news/63798484

There is no good reason, China was forced to open up because the virus could not be contained without incurring economic cost that xjp didn't want to bear, such that they were totally unprepared. There was no vaccination campaign, the propaganda machines ramped up quickly to promote ease of restrictions with little education on how to cope with COVID. Many Chinese families did not have cold medicines because up to only a few weeks ago, you would need to register to buy cold medicine, be interrogated as to why you need to buy it (China did not want people to buy cold medicine to hide potential COVID infection). All the sudden cold medicines became short in supply.

I'd argue the bigger reason than "economic cost" was the protests. China can't risk having a big public protest have success in changing government policy. That'd set a dangerous precedent for the CCP. Better give in while the protests are smaller and contain and hope nobody makes the connection.

Resumption of 10-year visa is the only issue that will stop them.

By “Chinese friends” I mean Chinese citizens living outside of China, such as in the USA or Europe. Many have not been back to China since Covid started because of the quarantine policies

Even if 10-year visas are re-instated again, I doubt many foreigners want to visit China any time soon.

The regime has managed to destroy China's reputation and credibility in a matter of 3 years.

For many people outside of China, they have no desire to visit the "evil" country that (they think) started the COVID virus, then blames everything to western "forces", disregards the dignity, fundamental freedom and lives of its own citizens. Not to mention constant lies one after another from its diplomats and MFA spokesmen/women.

People remember those random lockdowns and horrible concentration camp style "COVID hospitals" and harshest crack down on any slight dissent.

For PRC citizens studying or working abroad, and for those foreign citizens who have families and relatives in China, it's obviously a different situation.

IMO, they threw them a bone, and I'll leave it at that.