Silk Road Passes Through Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Wednesday 6th of April 2022 at 2 am, I was sitting on an iron bench on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. My hotel rejected to check me in as my Covid-19 test results was delayed.?I’ve spent whole night on the street and that was the spark of writing my journey to China.

To make you feel more comfortable, let’s start with some Bruschetta and Negronis. I was working on an industrial design and development project for about one year and after couple of months of trials in Italy, we were reaching to installation and validation phase in China. Our base plan was to move to China in February 2022 and stay for 6 months.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, I’ve planned a road trip for my Christmas holidays before leaving France as EU was removing most of the Covid measures in December 2021. I was chasing Santa in Strasburg, tasting gastronomic of Lyon, losing my soul in Lucerne, chilling in Augustiner biergarten, finding Roma of Alps Salzburg, visiting Gustav Klimt art gallery, limiting my car GPS in Bratislava, cherishing medieval architecture of Prague, till I got Covid in Berlin and finally I drove back home after 3 weeks of driving 6000 kilometers in 8 countries. I still remember first meeting after Christmas holidays that everybody confessed, they are tested positive. Of course, no one wants to get Covid, however in my case it helped me to reduce the risk of infection in upcoming months.

In February 2022 Shanghai amidst the biggest lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic, Borders were closed for most of the countries and working visa application required huge pile of documents, even more than French citizenship application!

I left Paris on 17th of February but my silk road pass through Atlantic Ocean! all the direct flights from Europe have been canceled and Canada was one of the exception hubs which was operating direct flights to China. Basically, I should land in Toronto, do another PCR and Blood test (Yes! You should do antibody IgM test and even an X-ray scan on lung prior to traveling) then take next flight from Toronto to Shanghai.

A Persian expression states “A great year is judged by its spring!”, once landed in Toronto after 3 hours of waiting, Airline claimed that my 22Kg luggage has been delayed and later they claimed that it has been lost! In addition, we’ve found out there’s a new notice which requires to do 7 days PCR test in Canada as well! I had another Spanish colleague from Belgium who was meeting up with me in Toronto to fly together to Shanghai.

While we were checking to adjust our planning, my “Green Code” application has been rejected in Canada and I’ve received a communication from China consulate in Toronto telling me in my case” you should stay 1 month in mainland of Canada if you want to fly to China as there’s Direct Fly from France to China!” After asking for that flight number, I’ve found out that one of the airlines is still operating direct flights, but those flights are not commercialized which mean we cannot buy ticket. We call them “Ghost Flights”.

Ghost Flights are defined as those with no passengers, more than 100,000 of them had flown just from Europe during last winter. Why? Because EU law dictates that they must operate a percentage of Scheduled flights to keep their valuable takeoff and landing slots at major airports. This is also known as the “Use it or Lose it” rule.?I let you judge it by yourself, anyhow presence of a Ghost flight which is not appearing in any booking website was enough to reject my Green Code.

Decision point! should I take it or leave it? Even though staying in Toronto at -10°C during wintertime is not the best plan for Vacation, I decided to take 3 weeks of holiday before continuing my journey more to the Left (if it doesn’t make you jealous, you should know that we have lots of vacation in France! Vive la république Vive La France!). Toronto is diverse and unique, there’s certain level of freedom which takes much time to acknowledge. Staying over a month was enough to understand their system and lifestyle. I was hanging up with some of my closest friends which was great.

On 20th of March, I flew from Toronto to Shanghai by celebrating Persian new year at Air Canada Lounge (one of the best lounges ever!).

Get ready for main dish! After 32 days of living France, Finally I’ve reach to China and it’s just the beginning of the story. It was my first trip to China and quiet challenging period to visit the Red Dragon.

Once landed at Shanghai Pudong Airport, it took us more than 1 hour to come out of the Airplane and it was the first time that I saw famous Covid white suits (by far it will remain as my favorite suit!) those suits cover all the parts of body like the ones in micro biological laboratory. There was several gates and online forms which took me about 3H to go through all of them. then based on my final location in Shanghai I should wait for next bus to bring us directly to Quarantine Hotel.

As of beginning of Covid, China started dedicating several hotels for quarantine in each region. Once we’ve arrived, I gasped in surprise at the sight of hotel entrance. This 4-star hotel had a big piano in the middle of entrance hall, but everything was faded behind disinfectant sprays. A spooky hotel to host another Jack Nicholson.

After entering to my room, I was pretty happy. 35sqm with 2 king beds and a big bathroom. I was in a high floor with a beautiful view of the city, very helpful to understand how big Shanghai is. I should stay 2 weeks at this hotel then I could move to another hotel by my choice and finally move to Taicang. My work location was in Taicang which is in Jiangsu. It’s about 50km away from Shanghai center but in a different province.

In quarantine hotel, we couldn’t order any food from outside and they were bringing Lunch Boxes behind the doors 3 times per day. Also, we have not been allowed to go out of our rooms and it’s clearly mentioned on the papers that I’ve signed before checking in. ?I didn’t get use to eat Congee, Dim Sum and cold Baozi before this trip, and I confess that it was quite complicated to go through those foods. Fortunately, I’ve packed lots of Noodles and dry meat from Canada which were supportive!

My agenda was full enough to do not get bored and nights were calm enough to read and watch IP man. Watching cherries blossom from window could be considered as weekend activities during springtime and we should do 21 PCR tests in total during 2 weeks of quarantine.

Everything was going smooth (at least for me) till Shanghai imposed a city-wide lockdown of its 26 million residents due to break out of Omicron variant. China, as of beginning of pandemic follows “Dynamic ZERO Covid” Policy which is objected to have Zero new Covid case in each region.

On 4th of Avril, I should finish my service in sentence, however city was still in lockdown. They have transferred us to another quarantine hotel for one more day, hopping to get promising results out of 26 million PCR tests. Basically, this city lockdown should last 10 days however, number of cases were got higher, and city remained in lockdown for two months.

Let me pause here as I want to introduce you “Mr. Purple”. Once we’ve started talking about this relocation in October 2021, he was our primary contact to facilitate all the steps. Personally, I’m considering moving and settling in China during this Covid-19 breakout as one of the most challenging projects of this year and this couldn’t be happened without him. He has always an answer to all the expected and unexpected challenges.

At that night we were really struggling to find a transport from quarantine hotel to my final hotel as Taxi services were interrupted. I remember that I got a call from Mr. Purple at 8pm which telling me get ready in 20 minutes as he had found a transport! Even though it was a minivan for goods transportation, he had smuggled me to new hotel.

Before reaching to main entrance of hotel, there was a big gate which leads to a shopping center, to go through, one of managers came and checked my papers (Id and PCR tests) before letting me in. once we’ve crossed the gates, security guy was taking picture of us and sharing in Wechat for records. WeChat is main App of communication; it makes it simple to be in touch with everyone as people are constantly connected.

Once I was checking in at front desk, they’ve rejected to check me in as my 24h PCR test was expired for about 3h and result of last PCR test was not available on the system neither! After experiencing my longest layover (30 days in Canada) and my longest flight duration through Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in my life, I was going through my longest hotel check in for 3h and even so they’ve rejected to check me in!

Fortunately, they’ve accepted to keep my luggage and give me a blanket. I should go to hospital at midnight to do a PCR test again, in whole this time Mr. Purple was helping me with communication. Communication is first key of success; it could easily become tricky in China if there’s no negotiation behind. No means Yes and Yes means No.

In fully empty Nanjing Road at 3am, someone appeared in front of me out of the blue. An American guy, who has been rejected by the same hotel for the same reason. Even there was no wolf on the street, it feels better to have a conversation with someone. In Shanghai, there’s camera in every corner and architecture of city which is designed based on communities help to have more control. ?Once comparing safest places in the world, people refer to Safety Index score which might be helpful to have a holistic view any how my comments are rely on direct observation and behavior analysis. Maybe China is not the best place for driving anyhow I consider it as a safe country from several points.

The day after I’ve checked in at 4pm to continue my self-monitoring week of quarantine which I shouldn’t come out of the hotel room neither. As base plan I should move to Taicang as soon as I finished my 3 weeks of quarantine, but it came out that someone in the hotel was tested positive! at that time even birds couldn’t skip out of Shanghai. In my case it was even worth because several people in my hotel were tested positive. After one more week, we got the approvals from government and communities magically. A taxi drove me to the borders and then I moved to second car as driver didn’t have right to cross the borders. There was more control in the highway than crossing another country’s border. Red and blue lights with spiral protective barriers and flashlights just like paparazzi.

At my arrival in Taicang I’ve spent 2 more weeks in quarantine, 6 consecutive weeks as of my first day in China and 85 days after the day that I left Paris.

Even though it was not the best time to visit China, I consider it as a lifetime experience. It helped me to find my unconscious bias, acknowledging new economic system and appreciating a new culture. Once settled in Taicang, Covid situation significantly improved, and we had this chance to go through all the good things. Nature is far more beautiful than what you see on the picture, lots of tasty foods and all the happy faces are just part of my Big Like list.

Like any other country and culture there’s lots of good things and couple of opportunities in China, it all depends on our perspective and judgment. I’ve seen lots of grit and growth mindset on my Chinese colleagues. There’s high level of collaboration on the way to help each other taking the risk, failing occasionally, and learning continuously.

Today I’m leaving China and even though quarantine raised my anger, I can’t wait to back and go through all the good moments with people that today I proudly consider them as friends.

Best,

Armin Arasteh

P&G Global Manufacturing Representative