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HONG KONG: China has stopped issuing multiple-entry
tourist visas until after this summer’s Olympic Games, travel
agents in Hong Kong and Singapore said Monday.
“At the beginning of last week,
we were no longer able to get any multiple entry visas for
anyone,” Daryl Bending, from Concorde Travel in Hong Kong, told
Agence France-Presse. “The main reason is to do with the Olympics,
and we expect that after the Olympics things will return to
normal.”
Sunrise International Travel Co.,
also based in Hong Kong, said on its website that it would be unable
to get hold of multi-entry visas—that are valid for between six
months and three years—until October.
Single-entry and double-entry
visas, valid for up to three months, are still available, the agents
said.
A travel agent with a tour
company in Singapore said the move took effect March 27 and China
would not be issuing multi-entry visas until further notice.
Bending said some people had
already cancelled planned trips to China when they were faced with
the restrictions.
Andrew Work, executive director
of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce here, said the ban would cause
problems for foreigners living and working in Hong Kong, a report
said.
“This is a real hassle for
foreign small and medium-sized business owners. It’s bound to slow
down business,” Work told the Sunday Morning Post.
Short-stop visas that were
available for some nationalities, including Australians, at the
border with the southern Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangdong
province, had also been stopped, Bending added.
The border city of Shenzhen is a
popular day trip destination for Hong Kong residents looking for
shopping bargains.
No one was immediately available
for comment from the Chinese foreign ministry in Hong Kong or in
Beijing.
Hong Kong, despite being a part
of China, is run on different legal and visa systems since it was
returned by colonial power Britain in 1997.
--AFP
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