Journey back to the land where WE smile, China

It took us some time to figure out where we are the happiest but we’ve finally made the decision! It is finally time to end the longest vacation ever, the one that started with Operation W.I.E.R.D, parts 1 and 2. Thailand is called the Land of Smiles and it’s a lot of fun to come here for vacation. We discovered that it’s just not someplace we can reach our financial goals without sacrificing something else. There are so many things about China that we love, Hangzhou in particular, and we knew we wanted to journey back to the land where we smile.  We just needed to figure out how to get ourselves (and Booker) back.

The emotional support goes both ways here

Traveling with sweet Book requires a more strategic plan. Doing it right now, when China requires a two-week quarantine, complicates it an unquantifiable amount. Not only do we need to find an airline that will let his aging body and soul travel in the cabin with us, we would also need to find a quarantine hotel that accepts pets. But how to let him outside five times a day? His heart medicine has him drinking a lot of water and what goes in, must come out. Since we can’t go outside during quarantine, taking Booker into that situation is impossible.

Our good friend and dog sitter, Sima, suggested we split up for the journey. One of us should come to China first and do the quarantine. When she’s finished, the other one of us can bring the old man over for hand off and then do her quarantine. While there are still details to work out, this plan sounded genius compared to anything we were coming up with.

Kim booked me a ticket as soon as we got our Chinese visas. I made an appointment at a hospital for the two Covid tests I would need prior to flying, the nose swab and a blood test. We bought me a full body suit like we’d seen in a lot of other immigrants’ videos. We packed up as much of our stuff as we could and off I went, alone and biting my lip behind my face mask. 

If I want to hold her hand in China, I need to let go of it in Thailand

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I landed in Shanghai. Kim is the QUEEN of research. When she finishes one subject and to-do list, she immediately moves onto the next. Together we’d watched many videos of other ex-pats landing in China to see what I could expect. They documented what their intake process looked like. I had a rough idea but since I’d never done it before, I wasn’t 100% sure. Add to that uncertainty that it’s China and things change quickly with very little warning in daily life. Add to THAT the uncertainty everywhere now. So many things unknown! I didn’t have anything concrete and I was coming alone but I also knew Kim wouldn’t send me anywhere without making sure I could handle it. If we were going to make this transition back to the land where WE smile, I needed to take these steps alone.

Am I here to fumigate or emigrate?

I expected everyone would be wearing white coveralls in the airport but I was wrong. Even though there were only a handful of people wearing them, I put mine on. I wanted to show that I take the pandemic seriously and I am willing to temporarily sacrifice my comfort for the sake of our collective health and well-being. I believe in personal freedom but I also believe in trusting healthcare professionals and their suggested regulations.  Sweating it out for an hour or two beats passing along a disease to someone with a weaker immune system. I expect this form of precaution will become standard if the pandemic worsens. The suit was just under $10; not a bank-breaker for a one-off but if we would need multiples for different legs of a journey, they could get expensive. 

No room for error

One thing I knew I could count on in China was that I would be told what to do, every step of the way. They might change their minds and procedures often, but they are efficient in doing so swiftly and making it hard to make a mistake. As I deplaned, I could clearly see which direction to go. I followed clearly-marked, bilingual paths to each healthcare worker. Sections were roped off; I had no choice but to go in the direction they wanted me to. I could not make a mistake, even if I consciously tried. No overthinking here. My brain took a little break and let my feet do all the work.

My two carry-ons and I walked along and stopped at a few stations: one to sign a consent form saying I would be cooperative, one to show my health code from Thailand that proved I’d had a negative test, one to show the paper I’d filled out, declaring that I’d already tested negative, one to get my sterile test tube for my test I would take at the airport and one to get a test here at the airport. Airport staff answered questions and solved problems accurately and efficiently.

Go with the flow

After the test, I walked to baggage claim and picked up my three checked bags. I tossed them on a free luggage cart – take notice America, luggage carts are free in Asia! – and headed further along this blue-taped road. The next – and final – station collected my passport and assigned my quarantine hotel. I sat and waited with some other passengers from my flight.  Maybe five minutes later, our bus pulled up outside. We all lined up with our bags. We waited for our names to be called. One of only two blue passports in the stack of otherwise red, I could tell when I needed to listen for my name. 

The whole process from plane to bus only took about an hour. It couldn’t have been executed any faster or more painlessly. (Except for the actual Covid test, which was literally a little painful. You can watch this YouTube video made for healthcare professionals on how to do the nasal swab.) My bus ride here took about an hour. “Check in” lasted two minutes, long enough for me to hand over my passport again so fully PPE-ed hotel staff could take a picture of it and my welcome packet. The most difficult part of the transition from the airport to my hotel room was wrestling all my bags by myself, a self-inflicted necessity.

Home sweet hotel room

The check in process was a continuation of Chinese efficiency in the face of ever-changing circumstance. I flipped my bags around to re-pocket my passport, trying to hang onto my envelope of everything I needed to know about what was expected of me while staying with the flow of people headed to the elevators. There were a few sheets to fill out and place outside my door for collection. I needed to scan a QR code. And I really needed a shower.