When China reopens, ‘old friends’ from S’pore will get

Arief Budi

Global Courant 2023-05-15 13:45:00

SINGAPORE/BEIJING – A month before China resumed all visas to foreigners on March 15, Singaporean businessman Tony Du received an invitation to visit the country from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Sichuan Province.

Mr Du, who is the chairman of the Tian Fu Association, a Singaporean clan association for new Chinese immigrants, gathered a group of 30 members for the five-day trip starting March 25.

The delegation included business people, students and others, such as retired architect Liu Thai Ker. They entered on business visas processed with the help of the Chinese embassy in Singapore. While they paid for their airfare, all other expenses were borne by the Sichuan government.

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The group stopped at locations such as the city of Maotai, where the fiery Kweichow Moutai liqueur is produced, as well as Zunyi, a historically significant location in Communist Party history.

The visit made local news and was hailed by Guizhou state media as the “first tourist group from Singapore” to visit the region since the pandemic.

Seng said of his visit: “There were far fewer people, but many shops were open and the desire to recover from the pandemic was there, although my impressions were superficial as I was only there for a short time.”

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