AFP: Donning yellow “Bali” hats featuring a surfer as the last letter, Chinese tourists walked along the Indonesian backpacker hotspot’s pristine blue waters, forgetting three years of Covid-19 misery.
Exploring “turtle island”, taking day trips to neighbouring Lombok and hitting Bali’s famed beaches, the world’s biggest-spending tourists were back after the Lunar New Year kicked off and Beijing reopened to the world last month.
“I am especially happy to travel because, before the pandemic, I was someone who liked to travel a lot, going all over to see the sights, experience different cultures and people,” Li Zhao-long, a 28-year-old internet company worker from Kunming in southwest Yunnan province, said.
“Three years on, being able to come from China to Indonesia, I am extremely happy and overjoyed.” Chinese holidaymakers have endured years of lockdowns and travel restrictions driven by Beijing’s fervent pursuit of its “zero-Covid” policy, followed by a sudden reopening and accompanying spike in infections.