There were many people in Hong Kong with the same idea as me – to get back to the Mainland and finish quarantine in time for the holiday – so there was increased demand for these flights in early January. China Eastern upgauged their flight from an A321 to an A330, CX added additional frequencies, and prices were higher than usual. To my delight, however, this time I found award availability on one of CX’s HKG-PVG flights and booked an economy seat for 10,000 British Airways Avios a little over a week in advance. This would be my third flight on CX and the first time I flew them to Mainland China. Previously, I had only flown Cathay Dragon to and from Mainland China.
I knew more about what to expect this time around and didn’t waste my time getting a useless pre-departure PCR test. However, during the first week of January, Hong Kong’s “Fifth Wave” of COVID was just beginning to start with increased cases in the community, so I was a little concerned about whether the Mainland authorities would tighten restrictions for arrivals from HKG. Since I work at the airport, I stopped by the CX counter the day before my flight and asked about the requirements, just to be sure. I was told, “we have not been informed of any changed to regulations for travel to Mainland China.” Good.
The next day, I took the bus to the airport and checked-in in CX’s block of counters. Once again, I had my health declaration code completed in advance and had already done online check-in to pick a seat, so the process was quick and smooth. On this ticket, CX offered 30kg of luggage allowance, so I took full advantage of it to bring gifts for family and some snacks for the quarantine.
I passed security and immigration and headed to Gate 9 for boarding. After a while a long queue formed at the boarding gate and I decided to join it. Someone took a peek at everyone’s boarding pass to make sure they were in the right place.
Economy class boarding began not long after and was done using the facial recognition gates (based on the photo & e-token created at the security channel e-gates), so no need for the boarding pass or passport to be shown. This works ok, but some people couldn’t be recognized and staff needs to remind everyone to remove their masks.
CX368 – 7 January 2022
Airbus A330-300 / B-LAX
Depart: HKG / STD: 0945 / ATD: 1006
Arrive PVG / STA: 1210 / ATA: 1204
Flight time: 1h 58min
I settled in onboard and it was clear this was a much fuller flight than the HX flight I took months earlier. I didn’t spot any open seats. We pushed back on time and again took off on Runway 7R.
This flight featured a full breakfast service and the IFE was working.
I felt that the IFE selection was less interesting to me than what was available when I flew CX’s A350 from LAX-HKG in July 2020, so I ended up just watching The Simpsons.
The flight path was pretty much the same as on the HX flight, except that PVG was landing to the North, so there was no need to fly up and around Chongming and Changxing Islands. Instead, we flew parallel to Jinshan Beach after having turned inland over Zhejiang, then passed over the bridge to Yangshan Port and Dishui Lake as we turned to line up for landing on Runway 34L.
The arrival process was mostly the same as last time. I went through the same registration and deep-nose testing process – nothing changed there. There were more people arriving this morning, so there were actually some queues at immigration control. The arrival cards for foreigners had also been changed. Thankfully, there was no buzzer box on my luggage this time and no one even manned the Customs x-ray so getting out of baggage claim was quick.
Since this time I had an address in Shanghai, I could go through the Shanghai resident channel for the transfer to quarantine. The difference is that for Shanghai residents, you go to a registration table for the district you live in and then you’ll be transferred to a quarantine hotel in that district as opposed to a random one anywhere in the city as is the case for the non-Shanghai resident channel.
My address is in Pudong New District and that table had a very long queue. All the other districts barely had any queue. It is the largest district…
After registering, I waited about an hour before our group was called to go downstairs to the bus. Downstairs, we waited another 15 minutes or so in the cold to get on the. This time it was not a coach, but a city bus so all the luggage just had to pile up on the floor and there were not enough seats for everyone. Maybe this is because the trip within Pudong is much shorter than those going to other districts for quarantine.
Still, we spent over an hour on the bus which was very cold since the back door didn’t close well letting a lot of cold wind come in. We were escorted by a police car the whole way. Again, no one knew which hotel we were going to except the driver and coordinator. We stopped and let one guy off at a fancy looking hotel before we got to the hotel for everyone else, the Atour Hotel near Kangqiao Subway Station. The bus driver missed the entrance the first time, so we had to go around the block and try again.
We got off the bus and waited in the lobby to complete the registration process; writing our details, our destination, and measuring our temperatures. All the passengers on this bus had come in on the HX and CX flights from Hong Kong that morning.
No need to pay for the room and board in advance this time, instead we all added a contact on WeChat who asked us to pay via QR code later on. This time the food was twice as expensive, but the room was much cheaper, so overall the cost for 14 days was less. (3400 RMB for the room and 1400 RMB for food.) After a while, we all got in the elevator in batches to go to our rooms. We had to put the sheets on the bed ourselves, but a decent goodybag of toiletries was provided.
Overall, the schedule of the day was as follows:
7:00am – Leave Home
7:45am – Check in with CX
8:10am – Wait at gate
9:20 am – Board flight
10:06 am – Takeoff
12:04pm – Landing
12:54pm – Disembark
2:35pm – Testing and immigration completed, wait for bus
4:18pm – Board bus
5:51pm – Arrive at hotel and check in
6:40pm – Enter room
This time, landing to being in the room took about six and a half hours; a couple hours longer than last time.
Overall, I’d say this hotel room was of equivalent quality to the last quarantine hotel I stayed at in Shanghai, though this one was slightly smaller and had a bit more wear and tear on the walls and furniture. It did have a better desk layout for remote working and was on a higher floor with an unblocked view. No plane spotting, however.
The view was not very pretty, but there was an interesting test track next door where some armored vehicles would come out and play every few days.
Someone also came to visit me (from outside).
I’d say the food at this hotel was slightly better than the previous hotel and I knew better than to try to order any food for delivery this time (plus it was made explicitly clear at check-in). I did eat up all the snacks I had brought with me pretty quickly, though. Here are some samples of the meals:
I think there was one more PCR test this time than the last quarantine I did. Just like last time, at the end of the 14 days I was free to go – in fact this time I could get out at noon even though I had arrived after 6PM, whereas the last time I had to wait until exactly 14 days since I’d entered the hotel down to the minute. There was a short wait in the lobby to get the discharge papers and be crossed off the list by local police.
My wife met me outside the hotel and we took a Didi to her apartment where I planned to spend the 7-day health monitoring period.
A last look at the Atour Hotel.
Two days later, we got a call from the local community saying that they weren’t too happy about a recent quarantine releasee staying there and that they were going to make me transfer to another hotel for 5 more days.
This was a bit disappointing but was in line with a policy change that took place while I was still in quarantine. A returnee from overseas had gone to a milk tea shop on the 6th day of her health monitoring period before receiving her PCR test result and infected the staff there causing a small outbreak and a big scare (also resulting in all Shanghai residents getting a star on their travel history meaning they’d need PCR test results before travelling home for New Year festivities). This triggered more tight control over the health monitoring period.
That night, a van came to collect me and take me to another hotel, the Yitel Zhangjiang, not far from the apartment. We also picked up another guy from a different residential area who was in the same boat and who was not happy about it. This hotel functioned like a normal one, with just one floor dedicated for health monitoring guests. While I couldn’t leave the room, I could order delivery from anywhere I wanted, and a small robot would bring it to my room from the lobby.
This was all an unexpected inconvenience, but you have to learn to live with these if you’re trying to travel anywhere in China during this period. After my 5 days, I got a negative COVID test result and flew to Sichuan (to the new TFU airport) without any issues to start the holiday festivities.
Thanks again for reading and hope you’ve found it interesting/useful! Happy to answer any questions about the process.