Chinese rush to renew passports as curbs lifted

STORY: Over a hundred people queued outside the immigration administrative office at Beijing's largest district of Chaoyang since early morning, patiently waiting for their turn to submit passport applications to travel abroad or visit Hong Kong.

Sunday's (January 8) reopening is one of the last steps in China's dismantling of its "zero-COVID" regime, which began last month after historic protests against curbs that kept the virus at bay for three years, but caused widespread frustration among its people and severe damage to the world's second-largest economy.