When Will Beijing's Dreaded Asterisk* Go Away?

Irene Li theBeijinger 2022-06-17

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If you are planning to travel this summer, chances are you are probably waiting anxiously to find out when the asterisk on your 行程卡 xingchengka (aka journey card) will go away.

Although there are specific travel guidelines for every individual city, there's no guarantee that every local hotel or attraction will abide by these rules. However, one thing that is for sure is that as long as there is an asterisk, it means potential trouble for travelers -- in other words, you may have a required quarantine at your destination or specific hotels may not let you stay.

As long as there are elevated risk areas in Beijing, the asterisk will stay. The current guidelines state the asterisk won't go away until every area in Beijing is returned to the baseline low risk. But when will that day finally arrive?

Long story short? The earliest day it will be lifted is Jun 19. Now for the long story of how we concluded this:

There are currently three elevated risk areas remaining in Beijing, all medium risk:

Guogezhuang Village, Fangshan (房山区青龙湖镇果各庄村).
Xiaowuji Village, Chaoyang (朝阳区十八里店(地区)乡小武基村);
Jingwang Jaiyuan No.2 Community, Chaoyang (朝阳区崔各庄(地区)乡京旺家园第二社区);

We also know from previous news reports that areas that are classified as elevated risk can be returned to low-risk if they have no more than one case in the last 14 days.

So, we checked the last 14 days for all three areas, here's what we found:

Guogezhuang Village, Fangshan (two cases in last 14 days, both on May 25);
Xiaowuji Village, Chaoyang (one case in last 14 days, on May 29);
Jingwang Jiayuan No. 2 Community, Chaoyang (four cases in last 14 days, the lastest one on Jun 5).

According to the rules as we understand them, a place will be lowered to low-risk if there is no more than one case in the last 14 days, so by this standard, here’s what should happen to these places:

Guogezhuang Village (should be clear by tomorrow afternoon);
Xiaowuji Village (should be clear by the afternoon of Jun 12);
Jingwang Homeland No.2 Community (should be clear by the afternoon of Jun 19).

So, according to our calculations, if no new cases occur in any of these areas and no new areas are escalated to medium or high risk, the asterisk should be removed from the "journey card" on June 19.

So, if you feel that it is absolutely necessary to be asterisk free before you travel, you're going to have to wait until at least Jun 19, in the best-case scenario.

Of course, this could change any time and exceptions might happen, so keep your eyes peeled for updates.