A True Quarantine Story in 2022

We made it!

After a 19-hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, plus a four-hour wait in the airport, followed by another hour of traveling, and then another two hours of waiting at the quarantine hotel to be registered, our family made it to the room where we would exist for the next ten days. Why ten and not seven? I’ll explain later.

As you go on to read my true quarantine story, do keep in mind how everyone’s quarantine experience can vary a lot. This is due to an odd top-down administrative choice to randomly assign quarantine hotels to travelers flying into China, which applies to both locals and foreigners from what I’ve seen. This air of mystery is probably what confounds the entire experience and makes it so frustrating, especially for families.

5 Things I Learned About Centralized Quarantine in 2022’s China

1. Paperwork, Schmaperwork

Seven days before even setting foot in China, we were told to opt for self-quarantine in the city of our departing flight. Full disclosure: We didn’t. We didn’t go partying around town, but we certainly made the most of our remaining days of freedom. And then 48 hours before our flight, we proceeded to a designated facility to perform a NAT or PCR test. *Warning: This is a nose swab variety and deeply unpleasant. This test was repeated at the same facility 24 hours later, and the results were sent to our email later that day. We printed this out, as well as our vaccination certificates (from China) and Health Declaration and Travel Declaration Forms detailing every city we visited while on vacation.

As Linkin Park put it so eloquently, in the end, it doesn’t even matter.

After we arrived in Shanghai, we scanned at least three QR codes, which led to a different form each time that we had to fill out to generate yet another QR code, which was required to pass each checkpoint in the airport. No one asked to see our small mountain of paperwork at all. What a waste of trees.

2. NAT NAT NAT

We did a NAT (Nucleic Acid Test) on-site at the airport. This was of the throat swab variety, which I had always preferred, until this deep-throat version that made all of us gag. Later, we would do another NAT on-site at the designated quarantine hotel. And then every other day during quarantine.

3. The Waiting Place

I had over three hours for Dr. Seuss’ words to echo in my head as we stood in line that night. One of the longer waits was the usual airport customs clearance line. Fun discovery: As we stood in the line for foreign passports, a customs officer tempted me with a shorter queue when he found out that I bore a non-US foreign passport (Singapore).

There's more to this story! This article was originally published on our sister site, Jingkids International.

Click here to continue reading

READ: Quarantine Times Reduced from 14 + 7 to 7 + 3 for All of China

Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush

Comments

New comments are displayed first.

Comments

A summary of my experience of getting from England to Guangzhou.

4th Jan – Get visa in London.

26th Jan – To North London for Day 1 NAT and blood test.

1st Feb – To North London Day 7 NAT and blood test.

2nd Feb – To Heathrow for late evening flight to Helsinki.

3rd Feb - Arrived early morning Helsinki. PCR test. Overnight on bench in Helsinki airport. Late afternoon flight to Shanghai.

4th Feb – Arrived 8:15 a.m. Shanghai Pudong. Three hours of queueing for testing and quarantine hotel. One hour’s travel to Home Inn quarantine hotel. Another hour to get to room.

18th Feb – Early morning bus from hotel to Shanghai Hongqiao airport. Depart late afternoon to GuangZhou (CAN). Arrived and taken to quarantine centre. Waited for 3.5 hours for transport to our apartment

25th Feb – Home quarantine ends, various forms signed, Guangzhou health code turns green. Register at local police station in the afternoon.

Validate your mobile phone number to post comments.