Quarantine in China – a first-hand account

Many of those who used to stay in China, but left the country for various reasons during the pandemic are clamoring to get back in. Getting a visa is slowly getting a bit easier, but one thing remains difficult – getting through quarantine.

When I started sharing on social that I was finally returning to Shenyang, scores of connections asked me whether I would let them know how my quarantine went. This is my attempt at doing just that.

Disclaimer: This is only one person’s experience of quarantine; in a specific city (Shenyang, Liaoning Province), at a specific time (March/April 2021), under specific circumstances (being relocated as the partner of an employee of a global corporation). It does in no way represent a definitive, globally applicable account of what quarantine will be like for you, should you return here or come to China for the first time.

Rules for quarantine

If you have been following the news in and about China for the past year +, you might have noticed that rules and regulations regarding visa, entry and exit of the country, and also quarantine have changed quite a bit.

The short explanation is that different

• provinces
• cities
• districts within the same city limits

will all have different rules, which, to make things even more complicated, are subject to frequent changes based on

• national,
• provincial, or
• city-wide policy AND
• appearance of locally transmitted cases

This can sometimes lead to interesting situations. By following me on Instagram or Facebook (both under @chinaexpatspouse), you can get a glimpse of what a change in policy here in Shenyang has meant for my and my husband’s quarantine…

But that is a different story for another day. Let me first give you a brief account of how we started our quarantine.

Arriving at the airport

After the various tests needed to be allowed on the plane, and a thankfully uneventful flight to China, we arrived at Shenyang airport on March 24th. Oh, one thing that was different during the flight (other than the need for wearing our FFP2 masks the entire time) was that we had our temperature taken every 4 hours by the flight attendants and needed to note down the temperature on our boarding pass.

Safely landed at Shenyang airport, I felt like I was transported into a pandemic-themed amusement park. You know how amusement parks are organized in just such a way that they can accommodate throngs of people – through the way they are set up and the queues are arranged? This was similar, but with masks and astronaut-suited employees (and even some fellow travelers).

The process was smooth and efficient, and designed to lead anyone through with a minimum of communication required. We had to show our passport, and our QR health codes (a green one showing our test results were negative, and a red one from customs that one could only apply for once the green health code had been obtained) several times along the way.

At a long line of desks with proper safety distance, more suited-up people were waiting for us, checking all our documents and making sure everything was in order. I hit a little snag, as I had apparently filled out one of the forms too well. The guy checking my papers and computer file insisted I change my place of living from my actual home to Frankfurt, where I had flown out of. Strangely enough, my husband (who had filled everything just like me) did not have to amend his documentation when being processed one desk over. Oh well…

The PCR test was a bit of a surreal experience. After 2 (or was that 3?) more checks of our documents along the way, we were ushered into cubicles. Even though I spoke to the nurse in Chinese, she was not very chatty, but just jostled me into place onto the chair that stood waiting inside. She stripped me of my face mask, tipped my head back, confirmed my identity by showing me a tube bearing my name until I nodded, stuck a q-tip up my nose, left it there while she unwrapped a second one, turned the first q-tip three times before taking it out and sticking the second q-tip down my throat, turning that, and depositing both samples in the tube. All without speaking a single word. At least my nurse was fairly gentle about it. My husband, on the other hand, was handled a bit more roughly, apparently.

Collecting luggage

Getting the luggage was also a tad different from what you usually expect at an airport. Airport employees took all the luggage they could get their hands on (i.e. all the pieces NOT snatched by their owners) off the conveyor belt and placed it all in parallel lines. Then, other employees bearing very large spray bottles – reminiscent of the ones used to spray pesticide – walked between the lines of luggage, drenching everything in disinfectant.

We later found out that must not have been the first such treatment, as the suitcases were quite wet throughout, not just the tops that were being sprayed while we watched. So, if you fly into China any time soon, wrap your suitcases in foil so you don’t arrive at the quarantine hotel with soggy clothes.

Transfer to the quarantine hotel

After collecting our wet luggage, we were ushered to a waiting bus, and transferred to the hotel where we would be spending quarantine. The transfer to the hotel was ‘interesting’ as well. There were only four of us heading to the same hotel, so the 52-seater bus was definitely roomy enough for the drive over so we did not have to squeeze together on the seats.

The front of the bus was closed off from the back where we were sitting by a big plexiglass pane, ‘artfully’ fitted with what must have been rolls of clear sticky tape. And a huge sign warning us not to take off our masks, leave our seats, or approach the driver at any point during the journey.

Once at the hotel, we were driven down into the parking garage, and sat in the immobile bus for about 15 minutes. Why? Because more astronaut suits came out of the hotel, armed with backpack spray bottles (think pesticide spraying again, but now for a whole field, not your home vegetable patch). They opened the belly of the bus, unloaded our luggage, and sprayed it – again – quite thoroughly. Once the suitcases were good and wet, they were heaped onto luggage carts, and we were allowed to get off the bus, follow the carts to the freight elevator, and go up to the designated quarantine floor.

Accommodation

I had heard all sorts of stories from other returnees about the quarantine accommodation. And I believe we were quite lucky in what we got.

I mean, yes, we were ushered through the catacombs of the hotel and the freight elevator to our floor. Yes, both the elevator and the floor on which we were to spend our three weeks of quarantine were kitted out like a slaughterhouse, with plastic sheets covering all surfaces, murky from having been disinfected so frequently. But that is not really what matters, is it?

Arranged by my husband’s company, we were housed in a four-star hotel. Due to the regulations when we started our quarantine, my husband and I had to stay in separate rooms for the first 3 weeks. We had suspected as much, and prepared well by packing everything separately and making sure we had necessary items like liquid dish soap or travel laundry detergent in duplicate.

By the way: for more information on what to pack for quarantine – check out the China Quarantine Handbook! Right now, you get it for USD 20 cheaper than usual with the coupon code take20off.

The rooms were pretty cool – well-appointed, and the staff also added in a desk and chair when needed to create a workspace.

Food got delivered to our rooms three times a day (it cost 150 CNY at the hotel we stayed at). There was no choice in what we could order, you ate what was delivered. Because I have food allergies, I ended up having Chinese food most days, as the food that was prepared for the other quarantine guests often contained ingredients I am allergic to. The regular food was a mix of ‘Western’ and Chinese cuisine. I use the word Western very liberally here, as there tended to be an interesting mix of dishes that you’d be hard-pressed to find in one sitting in most Western countries. Such as coleslaw (with more mayonnaise than cabbage) with raisins. Or goulash soup with a green salad. Or spaghetti Bolognese with Japanese curry.

The menu repeated itself every 6 days so that by week 2 you would already be well prepared for what would be delivered at every one of the meals that day. Food delivery followed Chinese eating habits: breakfast around 7:15, lunch around 11:25, and dinner at around 5:20.

One thing that was making our time a bit difficult was the slow internet connection. The hotel – no doubt trying to be helpful – had installed a VPN service on the network. While that meant that Google and YouTube were freely accessible, it also led to the connection dropping with alarming frequency. Telephone conferences were mostly fine during the day, but in the evenings, the speed would reduce even further, and opening documents or trying to download anything proved an exercise in futility.

My daily routine

Luckily, I had prepared enough offline entertainment for myself, and – of course – I also had my work to keep me busy. But, especially when trying to do anything online became difficult, having a rock-solid daily routine was a lifesaver.

Here is what I did to keep myself in mental shape and structure my days.

Every day, I would

• journal first thing in the morning (so-called morning pages)
• do yoga (I had downloaded yoga sessions for an entire month that would keep me busy even if the internet connection was slow)
• exercise for at least 15-30 minutes with an app (I use Runtastic/Adidas Training, which I love)
• study at least 15 minutes for my Chinese driver’s license
• film and prepare daily check-in videos that I share with friends and family, and that my VA puts on Instagram for me
• give myself a self-care challenge that helped keep me accountable to doing something positive for myself every day

And, since I work with clients who are located in China, in Europe, and in the US, the rest of my day was usually pretty full, so that I would not get bored.

Change of regulations

In our second week of solitary confinement (sorry, I mean quarantine), we learned that the regulations for quarantine in Shenyang had changed from having to spend 21 days in the same hotel to being able to move to a different place after 14 days. And, more importantly, being able to room with a family member for the remaining 14 days.

Therefore, we managed to move to a different hotel for those last 2 weeks. We are here now, in ‘medical observation’ which is really just a fancy term for ‘more quarantine’. We are still not allowed to leave the room, still get our food delivered, and still have to report our temperature to the hotel staff twice daily. But we get to do it from the same set of rooms instead of being lonely in separate rooms.

 Here is an overview of how my first 2 weeks of quarantine went:

If people are interested, I can share the lessons from the second part of our journey in another article. If you want me to write that, let me know in the comments or by sending me a direct message. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Facebook under @chinaexpatspouse if you want to experience daily updates of how things are going.