Visiting China in 2022 - Part 1 - Quarantine

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to quarantine in China as a foreigner?

This is a longer post, but I wanted to share my personal experience of travelling to China during Zero Covid.

Sourceful helps brands deliver packaging supply chains that lead to better and more sustainable products. We source locally and globally in the hunt for the best materials, manufacturers and overall solutions. We go above and beyond by meeting suppliers (even during the pandemic), ensuring a high degree of trust in an increasingly challenging world.

I’m the third member of Sourceful to travel to China during the Covid era, but unlike Sharon Chan who has done it three times and 马中云 who has done it once, I am Chinese by heritage but born in Britain with minimal Mandarin skills.

Whilst the rest of the world has opened up and is no longer talking about Covid, antigen/PCR testing, masks or vaccinations, it’s an entirely different story if you want to travel into China right now.

Step 1 - The first green code

If you didn’t already know, China (and much of Asia) runs off of QR codes. They largely skipped the desktop PC age and went straight to mobile phones. For Chinese citizens, they can use their Chinese ID, Chinese phone number and the super app WeChat to register for their Health Code (similar to the NHS Covid App).

For me, I had to use a website and fortunately it was in English.

It took 4 PCR tests (2x Manchester, 2x Budapest) before we could get the Green QR code to board the plane to China.

In fact, we had to register on 4 different websites (entering Passport and other PII data) just to board the plane and they checked each of the QR codes for validity.

Step 2 - The airplane journey

I first realised life was going to be very different when the airline crew greeting me in the off-ramp into the plane were wearing full hazmat suits. From top to toe in the white hazmat outfit with masks and goggles, armed with disinfectant tanks.

Since that point, apart from my fellow airline passengers (all wearing FFP3 Masks), every single person I’ve seen since then has been wearing Hazmat. Just to think about that: Airline crew, airport staff in China, immigration officers, police, baggage claim, drivers, hotel staff.

For food, instead of being given meals as normal, we were given a large, cold goody bag which was for both the flight and also for quarantine. It was a very interesting assortment and included:

• 9x Ferroro Rocher
• 2x Plastic water bottle
• 3x Very orange mini-sausages
• 2x Bread rolls
• 1x Apple
• 1x Meat stick (bit like salami)
• 1x Fork + Knife

Due to Covid, unless you happened to have a plane headphone jack lying around, you can only watch movies without audio.

Step 3 - The airport

This was the most ghostly, movie-like experience I’ve ever had. Coming off the plane and being shouted at in Chinese, walking around a large empty airport apart from Hazmat suit wearing staff that were doing a mix of immigration, administration, PCR testing and so on.

I was too engrossed in the experience of it all to take any photos, but it is definitely engrained in my brain.

Step 4 - Getting to the hotel

We landed in Tianjin airport and it is a bit of a random chance which hotel you end up going to. It depends on capacity, the local situation and what are the conditions of your passenger. We had an elderly blind gentlemen, several kids and some crying babies - I’m not sure what that combination gives you!

We ended up travelling a couple hours in a bus out of the city to a hotel. This was when it got a little bit tense. There were several couples and families, who all wanted to quarantine together rather than individually. Sharon and I were together too, and she had wisely planned for the possibility that we would be apart.

After some complaints and discussion with the hotel staff, they announced that apart from medical reasons, everyone would be in separate rooms, but they arranged for us to be in next door rooms to each other.

Step 5 - The room and the view

Quarantine in China is not like “quarantine” in other places during Covid. You MUST stay in your room at all times. There is a small window to let fresh air in, and you open your door to get food, empty your trash and get Covid tested (more on that later), but hanging out in the corridor, going for a stroll, checking out the gym (!) are all absolutely forbidden. The penalty for this is to have your quarantine extended and potentially other financial penalties too.

It didn’t sink in initially, but this room was my universe for the next 10 days. For my experience, the room was pretty good:

• Everything was clean
• Large TV with all the usual Chinese channels
• Average Wifi
• Bathroom with Shower
• An antique desk which I converted to my workstation thanks to some paper cups

As soon as we were put in our rooms, we joined a WeChat group (like Whatsapp) for our floor with around 20 people and the staff looking after us. I heard from some others that their rooms weren’t clean or some things were broken. In general, most people settled in.

I really like the view out of the window, we were over 10 floors up and we had a great panoramic view of the old early 1-floor houses as well as the rise of different generations of skyscrapers. Not only that, but during the day we can see out to the mountain ranges. It’s beautiful although felt so far away behind the glass.

Step 6 - The Daily Routine

The hardest part of quarantine has been the jet lag and trying to keep working on UK hours whilst following the quarantine’s chaotic routine.

China is +7 hours to UK right now which means the UK’s 9-6 is 4pm-1AM.

Meanwhile, our quarantine routine involved:

• Meals at 7AM, Midday and 6PM
• Self-temperature checks in AM and PM
• Daily self-antigen tests in the morning
• PCR tests administered by the staff

The problem was that the PCR tests (which involve opening the door and getting a swab poked deep into your throat) was being arranged last minute every night. One time it was 6AM, the next day it was 5AM and then it was 3.30AM.

This made it very hard to get any continuous sleep as you were either being interrupted to get food, get poked or submit your tests.

As many people know, coping with jetlag is not easy even in holiday relaxed conditions, and it’s much harder when you can’t get a block of time to sleep through.

One thing that helped was exercise. Sharon has already signed us up for weekly intense HIIT workouts, so I got into the habit of doing 25 burpees and 25 press-ups every day to get back into a rhythm.

Reflections

First of all, I am very grateful to Sharon who planned very well for the trip. I am not sure I would have made it this far without her, given the amount of mandarin speaking, reading and writing I would need.

Secondly, I am grateful to friends and family who called and kept me sane and connected.

Thirdly, the Sourceful team has been amazing and interesting work helps for sure.

The hotel staff have been very kind. They also have to quarantine with us on our floor, and they try and help as much as they can. Despite the hazmat suits and the language barrier, I still connect with them as fellow humans going through this process together.

Most importantly, hope is key. I’m hopeful and excited to meet the Sourceful team in China for the first time, to see our suppliers and partners, see Sharon’s family and maybe get a mini-holiday in as well! I’m also hopeful that Covid won’t be with us in this extreme form for too much longer, and that the world can all heal from the trauma of the last couple of years.