Day 7 in a COVID quarantine hotel in Shanghai

Hello from Shanghai — Day 7 in a quarantine hotel

I’m writing this update from a quarantine hotel in Shanghai. This is Day 7 of the 14-day mandatory quarantine period. Halfway there and so far so good.

Since China tightened up the rules of entry — dual tests 2 days before the flight — about a month ago, prices of direct flights to China have skyrocketed. The uneasiness was coupled with unexpected last-minute flight cancels.

At last, we managed to get on the plane, but it took us 6 hours from landing to getting to our hotel room, with a lot of QR-code checking, COVID testing, and shuttle bus waiting.

Hotels are assigned based on your residence district if you are a Shanghai resident, or randomly if your final destination is not Shanghai.

Our hotel is the Holiday Inn Express next to the Shanghai Railway Station. It has decent Wi-Fi speed — so I have no trouble writing this update to you — and allows external food and grocery delivery. Not all hotels satisfy these two very important criteria, and we are quite thankful for that.

Speaking of food and groceries delivery, it’s so much more efficient and reliable here than my experiences with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart. Clearly, Meituan, Eleme, and Ding Dong are doing a great job.