Travel Path NYC->Detroit->Seoul->Shanghai->Beijing Arrive August 7th
8700 miles, 23 days, 5 cities (For reference an old 19th century Clipper ships could cross the Atlantic in 21 days)
10 days in quarantine in Shanghai, which is basically sitting in a nice hotel room for 10 days straight.
Not so funny quirks of COVID China travel—We spend a lot of time getting COVID tested, retested, and proving we have the right testing and a lot of direct flights are impossible due to flight crews not wanting to quarantine.
We’re travelling a bit heavy: 600 lbs. of luggage in 8 bags—don’t ask about the extra baggage costs—and 6 carry-on bags. Going to and from the airport is a total pain. In our defense, we thought the family was traveling in 2021 and thus purchased many things in NY to live for the year and didn’t want to part with them.
Looking forward to getting back to Beijing and being in our own house! Celia has been targeting a new cat (mao in mandarin) which we’re planning on calling Chairman Mao Zecat.
Shanghai Airport to quarantine hotel
To continue our moving saga: We made it to the Shanghai airport. They have turned what once was one of the world’s busiest airports into a crazy empty maze with completely hazmat suited workers including goggles and taped on gloves. As we pass they quickly wiped everything down including their gloves.
We spent the next 6 hours navigating the airport: down one corridor to show our green code, another to fill out more paperwork, another to get our mouth or nose swabbed, another corridor to fill out more paperwork, then through the slowest passport control ever – there was no line but they checked that each letter was correct. Then we went through another maze to get our luggage, then we navigated through to a holding area for passengers that eventually will be going to Beijing. When we finally released from that area we were led though the maze to a quarantine hotel shuttle. A colleague of Dan’s, on the phone was concerned they were sending us the wrong way. We got one of the hazmats to talk on the phone and indeed, we were put in with the regular population while the colleague had arranged for us to go to VIP accommodations. An hour later we had been rerouted, re-held, redirected, until we were in a different area getting onto a different quarantine hotel shuttle.
We sat on the bus for an hour to our hotel. As we entered the hotel grounds, the weeds were hip high and growing through the driveway, the front door was boarded up and the windows were so filthy you couldn’t see through it. Inside the lobby was also make-shift and filthy. It was shockingly not what we’d think of as VIP. As we were being signed in, it became clear they were going to separate Celia as she is considered an adult in China. Luckily we had been warned this might happen and had her doctor write and official letter, which as had translated into Mandarin, that she could not be separated. The Hazmatters were unhappy about the note and unsure what to do, but they eventually agreed to let Celia and I be in a room together. Dan and Morton were sent to the room next to us and the Michael/Boyle Family got the two following rooms. We went up to the 17th floor – where our rooms were and were quite surprised, considering the lobby, how nice the rooms were.
They put a table in front of each room with a paper indicating how many people were inside and we went in. Lunch quickly arrived onto the tables: flat plastic containers with five compartments of heavily oiled and salted sautéed food, another container or rice, and tiny drinkable yogurt and an orange.
We unpacked some of our stuff, settled in, and fell asleep. It had been a crazy long trip.
Flight to Shanghai
Finally – all our bags checked in at the airport, and at the gate having to get more app green lights from the Chinese government to board- we sat down to wait for our 11:40 PM flight.
11:40 came and went with no announcement.
12:15 we were told there was something being worked on on the plane and soon they would let us board and they’d open two doors to make it quick.
12:45 – Celia fast asleep jammed into a waiting room seat- We were informed they thought we weren’t going to be able to fly but the airline was on the phone with the Chinese embassy to figure out how to deal with our Green Codes that would expire in a couple more hours.
1:15 Announcement to get in line for hotel vouchers, that the embassy would extend our Health Green Codes for 24 hours and they would give us hotel vouchers – AND (the worst part) we had to pick up our luggage (all 8 humongous bags!!).
We were fourth in line and waited a half an hour to get to the front. 350 people were behind us. It was crazy.
2:00 AM We got our luggage and dragged then to where there was supposed to be hotel shuttles – but none arrived – and UBER said there were no drivers available.
We found two car service drivers waiting around that said for an arm and a leg they would drive us the two miles to our hotel with all our bags. Morton and I prayed for our lives as the driver drove us like a maniac to our hotel. The hotel ended up being a dump – with a pull-out couch for the kids – with no pillows or sheets available – but at 3:00 in the morning – we were grateful for a place to lie down!
By the time we woke, it was time to check out – so we – along with the Michaels/Boyle Family that are making the move with us – from Brooklyn Prospect to the International School of Beijing- payed to be able to stay at the hotel until we could check in at the airport that night.
We took a long walk to a diner for brunch – which ended up being closed until August – and then ended up sitting outside a Starbucks for a couple hours, eating, chatting and killing time.
That evening we finally made it onto our plane! We flew 14 hours to South Korea where our flight staff deplaned to avoid having to quarantine in China. We waited two hours on the plane for the new flight staff who then flew us the 2.5 hours more to Shanghai – where we finally were able to deplane. One year, one day, and 18.5 hours later – we have arrived in China!
