Flights from Tokyo to Beijing were impossible to find this week – the closest available flight was to Kunming, in southern Yunnan province, about 2,600 kilometers away. There I spend 21 days in quarantine, and even then there is no guarantee that I will be allowed to enter the Chinese capital.
Since mid-December, the average daily number of cases in China has risen from double digits to more than 20,000. According to DailyExpertNews calculations, at least 27 cities across the country have been partially or completely shut down, affecting about 180 million people.
Some of the strictest measures are in effect in the country’s financial powerhouse, Shanghai, where many of its 25 million residents have been locked up in their housing complexes for more than a month, sparking discontent that has plagued China’s heavily guarded internet. flooded.
The number of cases in Beijing remains low compared to Shanghai – 34 new cases were reported in the capital on Friday, bringing the total number of cases during this outbreak to 228.
But China is not taking any chances as it tries to prevent the virus from spreading within its political center.
Travel to China
My trip to China this week was even more difficult than when I traveled to Beijing in February for the Winter Olympics, which were held under the toughest Covid countermeasures in the world. Subsequently, officials, media and athletes were separated from the Chinese public by an extensive network of physical barriers, quarantine periods and regular Covid testing.
Now, to get into China, I had to take three negative PCR tests from government-approved clinics seven days before departure, and then two more within 48 hours of the flight.
On the plane, all flight attendants wore hazmat suits, as did the staff at Kunming airport. Upon landing, all the passengers on my flight were immediately asked to take another Covid test, a nose and throat swab that makes your eyes water.
Most of the passengers on my flight turned out to have Chinese passports.
Foreigners can only enter under very limited circumstances, and it is exceptionally difficult for US journalists to get visas to China due to deteriorating US-China relations. Both countries agreed to relax visa restrictions on journalists from the others after a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last November. I got a visa earlier this year after several rounds of interviews.
Still, when I handed over my US passport, the immigration officer flipped through the pages for several minutes, then summoned a group of workers with “police” written on their hazmat suits. It seemed I was the only one of the plane being pulled to the side.
They took me to a private room for questioning, and after a lengthy police interrogation about my professional and personal life, I was allowed to go through immigration and customs.
After clearing immigration, I struck up a conversation with the man standing next to me as we waited to board the bus to the quarantine hotel. He is from Shanghai, but has lived in Japan for 30 years. He hadn’t been to China since the start of the pandemic, but finally decided that the 21-day quarantine to enter the country was worth it to visit his elderly mother in Shanghai. The city is now under a week-long Covid lockdown, so his only option was to fly to Yunnan and wait for the situation to improve.
China’s National Health Commission said Friday that the “zero Covid-19 policy” had yielded initial results in Shanghai, and the situation across the country is on a downward trend.
21 days in hotel quarantine
Not a single seat on the bus was empty and our luggage was piled in the aisles. From the bus window, I watched Kunming, a city of 6.6 million people, pass by at night — bright lights illuminated the buildings and highways.
After a two to three hour drive, we arrived at our quarantine location: a hot spring hotel converted into a quarantine facility. Workers in dangerous suits escorted me to my room.
The next morning I realized that my room overlooks a breathtaking view of Kunming – an expanse of green trees and mountains on the horizon. Kunming is the capital of Yunnan Province, a popular tourist destination, famous for its beautiful scenery and tea-producing regions.
There is a balcony, but I can’t go outside. But I’m grateful for the view, and more importantly, the ability to open the window for fresh air — in some of the quarantine facilities that are banned.
I can’t open my door except for health checks and food pick up. I get two temperature checks a day and regular Covid tests, sometimes twice a day.
Food deliveries are not allowed, but breakfast, lunch and dinner are included in the quarantine cost, which varies depending on which hotel you are taken to – there is no choice of where to go.
Meals come in plastic containers, which are placed in a chair outside the door three times a day – usually rice, soup and stir-fried meats and vegetables. I supplement the meals with snacks I brought from Tokyo after hearing about the substandard food in the quarantine hotels. Luckily I don’t mind the food with me.
In my room there is no refrigerator, microwave or laundry service. Only one towel will be handed out for the whole 21 days. I packed my own yoga mat, skipping rope and weights to practice. Despite the warm weather – it’s about 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) – the hotel will not turn on the air conditioning due to concerns about Covid transmission.
Assuming I keep testing negative, I may still not make it to Beijing. If the capital is completely shut down, all flights are likely to be cancelled.
Even before this latest outbreak, arrivals from parts of China deemed “high risk” had to spend an additional 14 days in quarantine by the government in Beijing. Fortunately, Yunnan is not one of them right now. Inbound domestic travelers from lower-risk destinations must spend at least seven days sealed in their homes for health monitoring.
Chinese authorities have doubled down on the zero-covid policy, arguing that it has enabled the country to prevent the explosion of deaths in other parts of the world and will gain time to vaccinate vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children.
“If we lose the Covid control measures, a large number of people will become infected with many critical patients and deaths, overwhelming (the) medical system,” Li Bin, vice director of the National Health Commission, said Friday.
But critics say the policy is more about politics than science.
President Xi has left his personal mark on ‘zero Covid’ and officials have often used the low death rate to argue that the Chinese system is superior to the West, where restrictions have been relaxed to reflect rising vaccination rates.
But in China there is no sign of change, and people are getting tired.
In year three of the pandemic, China is still refusing to live with Covid. No case will be tolerated, regardless of cost.
