For MEF World it has definitely changed our number of teachers. The fact that the country was basically closed for three years during the Covid times meant that the number of teachers went down. Most teachers finished their 1-year contracts or their second or third year contracts eventually even if they renewed a couple times.

Once finished, many chose to go back home to family without MEF being able to send new teachers from outside the country.  As most of the teachers MEF supports are teachers coming from outside the country, this was definitely a challenge.

Quarantine that was very scary when first announced became someone accepted as most countries followed with somewhat similar policies or at least made the thought of quarantine less scary.  For the most part it became hotel stay with wifi and meals provided.

The government never officially stopped teachers from entering, but created a new requirement document (The PU letter) which they did not really give out, at one point had a lottery system, and it was very unreliable for teachers so we stayed away from giving false hope for this letter and paused hiring for some time.

Once China allowed entrance again and dropped the PU letter requirement, entering and visas have gone basically back to normal. There has been some government news and concerns of stability but inside China, aside from shorter lock-downs, everything has basically returned to how it was pre-covid.