A Covid Story in Three Parts
Zhongshan, by Chinese standards is a small city, approximately 4 million people, but it’s a famous city and well located, it sits just inland of Macao and across the Pearl river from Dongguan. Most people know where it is and everyone’s heard of it because it’s the birthplace of Sun Yat Sen. And, for the last 15, almost 16 years, it’s been my home.
As Covid19 started to sweep through Wuhan and we saw some restrictions being placed there, those restrictions slowly, almost imperceptibly, started to hit us too. We heard of a city of 11 million people being locked down and read reports about cars being banned from going in or out, trains cancelled and flights stopped. And, while we had a lot of sympathy for the people there, we thought, privately, to ourselves, we’re lucky that’s them and not us. Then, as January turned into February some things started to change — we were already wearing masks, it was not allowable to enter a store, get in a taxi or even go to the bank without a mask. A few cases had come to our city and, instead of allowing the city to go unprotected, the local government lifted its energy levels and went into full protection mode. The park behind my house was closed and barricaded, the shops put tables outside and served customers in the street and the market place would only let me in through one entry, where my temperature was taken and, if I wasn’t wearing a mask, I was denied entry.
I went to the local pharmacy and asked for a packet of masks, they would only sell me one packet with 10 masks, because there was a queue of people waiting to buy them after me. But that was ok, at least now I could go shopping, or meet my friend for our morning coffee.
For a few days, wearing masks with these minorly inconvenient restrictions in place, we were allowed to come and go but, day by day, the restrictions got more serious. We went to our local coffee shop and were told we can have a coffee, but only takeaway, we ordered and sat on a bench outside, but got moved on by the local security officer. Things were really starting to change. A friend of mine, with a 2-year-old son took him out of the apartment for a walk. They both wore masks but when they got to the riverside, the walkway was deserted and being a 2-year-old, he wasn’t comfortable wearing the mask. My friend allowed him to take the mask off as there were no people within 100 metres. Suddenly, a security guard on an electric bike approached, shouting loudly in Cantonese at my friend and the 2-year-old that the mask needed to be on. Luckily, the boy speaks Cantonese and translated for his Canadian dad.
One day later, I went to go shopping and the small entry point to my community was blocked, a bike, barriers and some police tape had been placed across the lane. I went to climb over and heard a loud shout — go to the main gate they said. So, I went a few hundred metres further to the main gate. I had to answer several questions about where I live and go into the office to be issued with a pass. I was now allowed out for three hours but only every second day. My wife wouldn’t be allowed out at all because the pass was issued to me.
For the next couple of weeks this was how we lived our life, one day, we’d get up, have breakfast, coffee at home sit on the balcony and listen to the silence — we live next to a park which is usually full of people enjoying themselves, now, the birds were all we could here. We watched movies and we read books, we cooked meals from what was in the freezer and every second day, I would go out and restock the fridge or the freezer with my leave pass in my hand.
I was wondering how we would get through this when a friend of mine who had recently moved to Thailand contacted me with an opportunity to go there and work for a few months. Thinking this virus would be a localised, Chinese problem which wouldn’t clear out for a few months, I saw this as a good opportunity to get away from the restrictions, earn some income and perhaps, for a short time, have a different experience of life in a different country. How wrong that turned out to be…
Phase Two — getting home after a disastrous trip to Thailand.
I love Thailand, it’s a great place to visit but the city of Bangkok is not to my liking at all. My friend had a job opportunity and I went there, not just for the job, but also as a holiday and to catch up with him. If the job came off, I might stay there one year, ask my wife to join me for a while and then at the end of the contract, return to my adopted home in Zhongshan.
Arriving in Bangkok was a surreal feeling, there was one flight in and it was full, I was, I think, the only non-Chinese on board, seems many people were attempting to escape China, but not through Hong Kong Airport, it had been almost totally deserted when I got there with absolutely nowhere to even buy a cold drink, let alone a meal.
I met my friend at the agreed time and place and his first words were: “I’m sorry, I’ve got bad news for you”. Covid19 had reached Thailand, a taxi driver had just died and the school I was to interview at were going to review their plan and perhaps take an early holiday, the plans to recruit new staff were all on hold and I wasn’t going to even get an interview. OK, I said, not to worry as I sipped on a cold beer and pondered my now uncertain future.
I spent a week going from school to school, online and posting CV’s out to different locations all to no avail, as soon as they saw my experience was all in China, I wasn’t even invited for an interview. Then I spent a week with another friend at his beach house and just enjoyed a relaxing holiday while deciding how long I should stay in Thailand.
I then heard about quarantine restrictions being placed on people who were returning. I also heard around about this time, of flights being restricted in some countries and people who were not nationals being refused entry so I made a decision. I booked a flight as fast as I could because, while I like the beach in Thailand, it isn’t where I wanted to spend the next few months locked down there. I wanted to be back home in my own apartment in China.
On 27th March at 5:30pm, my flight landed in HKIA I caught a bus across the main road and exited HK in the departure hall just before the new bridge and was on another bus, across the bridge by about 6:30. And then, my re entry into China saga begins — a saga is usually a long story and this was no exception.
In the arrival hall of Zhuhai, we were sent to a series of desks and told to fill out a form. We then went to a line and waited to be interviewed by a person wearing full hazmat suit. The line was over three hours. About 10pm I had my interview, where have I been how long was I there what did I do, where did I go. Have I been tested for Covid19 — all the questions were on the form and had been answered, but I’d waited nearly four hours, just to be asked by a hazmat suit wearing nurse. After answering all the questions, I was sent to a “holding area” another two hours before the holding area was full with about 30 people. We were escorted out of the building around the back and back into the building again through to the passport control desk where each of us, one at a time and very slowly were checked, there were only two foreigners and we were left until the very last two (by coincidence, the other was a very good friend of mine returning from London, so we were having fun catching up).
Finally, at 1:30am, I was stamped back into China — a great relief but only the beginning of another long day.
Three more hours in the airport and we, just my friend and I with three other people who came from and were returning to Zhongshan, were called out and put on a bus to a hotel, about 10 minutes from the port. Great, we thought, we are going to get a room and some sleep, it’s already 4 am. But no. One more hour waiting in the hotel reception area for another bus, this one taking us to Zhongshan and yet another hotel.
Arriving at a hotel in Zhongshan Port area, we got off the bus, all five of us and, still in the car park I received my first Covid19 test. A swab down the back of the throat and some more forms to fill in. At this stage, no one had told us anything about what was going on, where we were going or how long we would be there, it was a simple choice, be patient and everything will sort itself out or get angry and it’ll still sort itself out. However, our arrival in Zhongshan seemed to be a good thing in the process. At last, there was a government official who said, you can sleep in this hotel tonight — it was 5:45am!
At 8am, I heard a bang on the door. I ignored it and turned over for more sleep. Then the phone rang. I couldn’t ignore that, I woke up, answered it and told in a very firm voice: come to reception you are going home now — hurry!
I dressed, raced down the stairs and nearly tripped over my breakfast that was probably left there with the bang at 8am but I ignored it and ran downstairs only to wait another hour for another bus which would take me to another hotel.
12 noon, arrived at a new hotel, this one only a 5-minute walk from my home. One person said you will be here until 1pm, one person said you will stay here tonight, another person said I will check your temperature every day in the morning and the afternoon for two weeks.
It was 2:30pm when I was given the keys to a room in this hotel, there were four people before me in the line and I was very patient. I finally got the keys and the receptionist said to me: sorry, you’re too late for lunch, dinner is 6pm. I got off the plane at 5:30 the day before and had eaten nothing since the mid-flight meal — starting to feel uncomfortable now. And, to my eternal shame, I got a little angry and told them so, especially since I had arrived at that hotel before 12 noon and was kept waiting while the food was being delivered.
Up in my room I still didn’t know if I was going to be released at 5pm, released tomorrow morning or released in two weeks. I didn’t bother to unpack anything except my laptop to write down a few of my thoughts and try to kill some time until either dinner or release — which ever came first.
It was neither…
Phase Three: quarantine and getting back to a new normal
Suddenly, at 3:30 the phone rang: “come downstairs you’re going home”. I’d heard it all before but I was still hopeful, I still hadn’t eaten anything and I knew my wife had a fridge full of food at home so I was anxious to know if it were true. On arrival downstairs with my luggage, there was a very pleasant young lady who spoke a little English who welcomed me back to Zhongshan. I think she was getting used to using the language rather than actually welcoming me. She asked me my name and wanted to see my passport, no problem and then she said: I’m going to take you home. We went outside and she pointed at a small motor scooter. I pointed at my large suitcase. Problem. I’m not sure why she thought, or why her supervisor thought it would be ok, but my 19kg suitcase, my backpack and I were all going go on that scooter with her.
Luckily, it was only a few minutes away and we arrived home without any difficulties, the roads were pretty deserted so nothing was going to bother us. At home was an interesting situation. My wife had been told that she couldn’t stay with me but luckily, we have two apartments and her best friend rents the other one so she was to become a guest in her own apartment. I was allowed into mine, but followed into the apartment by a police officer a doctor and the nice lady from the hotel. Instructions were given to me, not allowed to go out, not allowed to let anyone in, not allowed to meet anyone in the stairs, not allowed to… and so on. After another temperature check I was left alone in my own home finally. It usually takes about 3 hours to get from HK airport to home, this time it had taken 25 and I’d gone via three different hotels, two buses and a scooter. Time to prepare some food.
In quarantine there isn’t much to do. I’m lucky I have a lot of books on my kindle, I have several dozen movies on a hard drive, I have access to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook and I enjoy writing. So, after taking stock, deciding what food I had and what food I wanted my wife to get for me over the coming days, it was an easy settle down into a routine.
Most days, I’d wake up about 7am and the community workers, including one staff, one doctor and one police officer would come about 9am for the temperature check. If she was shopping for me, my wife would arrive about 11am and leave the shopping bag outside the door and leave, she’d let me know, I’d go out and get it and we’d have a chat through the screen door for a few minutes. I cooked a little, I like baking so I made cakes and bread, enough for the next few days and I’d watch a movie or two, read a book and started to use Twitter for the first time in my life — although I had been a Twitter account holder since 2015, I only had 2 followers and I’d never posted a tweet. I decided now was a good time to blog about my time in quarantine and to post photos of my bike rides across China. I have over 3000 pictures of many different places having ridden over 20,000 kilometres in the last 6 years.
Two weeks of this went by quickly, I can honestly say, there was barely a moment I felt bored. I had one more Covid19 test part way through and the penultimate day, they came and gave me the third test, telling me I’d be free tomorrow if the test was negative — but do not go outside until they’ve been to visit and take my temperature.
Everything was fine, 11am on the final day of my two-week confinement and I was out. However, I was to report at 9am every day in the local community office for 7 days to have another temperature check.
Now, as I write this in late June almost two months later. Zhongshan has still not experienced a single new case of Covid19 since before my trip to Thailand, yet, we are still obliged to wear a mask if we go shopping. The streets are now open and we can go anywhere we want, but queues for the bank are kept outside and not inside, this is the same for anywhere we might need to line-up.
I went last week to the local immigration office to renew my visa and needed to sign in with my passport number, my phone number and my address. I went to my local market on my bike the other day but forgot my mask, I wasn’t allowed in and left without making any purchases. Stores such as McDonald’s are now allowed to serve but only one person (or family) per table and no entry without a mask. Restaurants are operating with relative normality, but only every second table is being used to give diners space and our temperature is taken as well as our phone number. I went to the dentist recently and was asked to scan my phone over a QR code and enter the appropriate information before I was allowed into the waiting room. For my visa check, I went to the immigration department’s medical office and, although I wasn’t tested for Covid19 but I did need to check the QR code and I did need to write my phone number ID number and have my temperature checked before I was allowed in for a medical — Strange days indeed. Is this the new normal? I think it is.
