My brother finally arrived at his Beijing apartment, after two weeks' COVID tests, hotel quarantines, and many changes in modes of transportation, regulations, and time. As a determined and cheerful man, he is not so easily deterred by difficulties or obstacles. But this trip to United States has taken its toll on him.
To join his daughter's Stanford commencements for BS and Masters degrees on June 12th , and his son's wedding celebration on July 3rd, my brother jumped on a train from Beijing to Shanghai on June 9th, as there was no direct flight to the States from the capital city. On the same day (because of the time difference across the Pacific), he was picked up by Paul at San Francisco Airport (SFO), and stayed with us in Santa Cruz overnight. His wife, daughter and a neighbor joined him the very next day to get ready for the graduation over the hill. After a few days' sightseeing in the vicinity of the Bay Area, he and his family returned to their New York home. Things went smoothly without too many delays, or mishaps.
On the Fourth of July, he flew back to California. According to China's stringent COVID regulations, he would need a COVID test within 24 hours' of boarding the flight, from where he had landed, i.e., SFO, so as to obtain a green QR code to be eligible for flying. As the regulations underwent a new revision right before his departure, he had to do two tests, both 48 and 24 hours prior to flight. To comply with the newly announced rule, he changed his early flight to a late one.
As soon as two tests were completed, my brother submitted the required forms, and uploaded his negative results to the designated authorities, but the green QR code was slow in coming. Through the nick-of-time intervention on the part of his secretary, he obtained the much-needed green code, barely hours before his flight to Shanghai. It turns out that a wrong date on his form for the first test was the culprit of his pending status.
Once in Shanghai on July 7th, he was quarantined in a hotel for seven days, without being able to step out his room door. On the seventh day, he was informed that he had to quarantine for another three days, because a COVID case was detected nearby. Confined and restricted for a week, my brother did not lose his mind, but resorted to resourcefulness. Seeing reasoning fail, he called a municipal hotline. Thank goodness, the hotline listened by allowing him to continue the quarantine in our Shanghai home apartment. Because of the add-on quarantine, he had to cancel the flight to Beijing and book a train instead. He learned later that hotel guests who checked in at the same time with him had to stay for another week after their ten days' stay, because a new guest from Japan had tested positive, even though the former were all in their own rooms, and not anywhere near the newcomer.
On Monday the 18th, my brother finally reached his apartment in Beijing, only to be told that the three-day quarantine was extended to a week, reflecting yet a new change in the rules.
What a return trip that took a fortnight's time from New York to Beijing by air, in the name of COVID zero cases!
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