I wrote this during centralized hotel quarantine to share my experience flying DL289 back to China on 1/22, departing in the early morning. I hope this will be helpful for others planning to return to China afterward.

This post is divided into Seattle testing, applying for the green health code in Seattle, boarding in Seattle, clearing immigration/customs in Shanghai, and quarantine in Shanghai and Zhejiang.

Seattle Testing

I arrived in Seattle on the morning of 1/20. As soon as I left the airport, I first went to the hotel to check in my luggage, then grabbed my passport and headed straight to the testing site. My actual appointment was in the afternoon, but after communicating with the testing lab, I was told I could go earlier. As long as the lab was not too busy, they could fit us in. Following the principle of “test earlier, get results earlier, apply for the epidemic prevention health code earlier,” I got to the lab a little after 10 a.m.

I booked the Seattle Renton testing lab. Check-in was in building 200, and the actual testing was in building 400. Once I got there, I went to 200 first. Inside, there was a machine where you could check yourself in. Then the front desk staff called people in check-in order. But because my appointment was technically for the afternoon and the lab was very busy at the time, I was told to wait outside the building in the cold wind for more than an hour OTZ.... Luckily, I chatted with another guy while waiting, so time passed a little faster...

After that, I kept going back in from time to time to see whether I could get tested yet. Finally, on my fourth time going in, the front desk staff gave us a "client intake" form, which included consent items for the test and personal information. They would verify your personal info with you, especially your email, since that is where your PCR report will be sent, and it is very important! Be sure to use a simple email address—letters and numbers only is best. If it has underscores or other symbols, there may be some risk. Then I went to 400 myself for the blood draw and nasal swab. There were 2 staff members there: one performed the test, and the other used your phone to take a burst of photos for you. They were very experienced and would tell you to wait until the blood had entered the tube before taking the photo. For the photos, you needed to hold up your passport to show the info page and look at the camera. The nasal swab felt intensely uncomfortable to me, and my eyes started tearing up immediately. (The ones in China are also pretty intense, but in a different way; the ones in China are not as sharp, but they go very deep, which feels weird.)

After the test, I just went back to the hotel to rest. Eat, drink, and try not to panic. I did the test around noon on 1/20 and received the report the next morning, around 8 a.m. on 1/21.

Applying for the Green Health Code in Seattle

First, I should mention that Seattle flights were not reviewed by the consulate in that consular district, but by the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. (Embassy of PRC China in the USA). Because of that, the rule of “no non-essential, non-urgent travel” was enforced especially strictly. Before departure, I had already heard that on recent flights, aside from F and J visas, other visa types were basically not being approved unless there was a major family emergency. So a lot of people I knew with B visas and L visas (not to mention green card holders and U.S. citizens) changed their departure point to California instead.

Back to the main point: as soon as I saw the test report in my email that morning, I immediately followed the experience previously shared by others and put together 10 images to upload to the embassy for review. To upload them, search for the WeChat mini program “防疫健康码国际版” and go to “申报入口-检测结果申报,” where you enter your personal information and upload your 10 supporting images. The 10 images I used are shown below. After finishing all that, I went back to sleep... (A small tip here, even though I did not need it myself, someone on the same flight ran into this problem: if your images are too high-resolution and take up too much space, you can send them to yourself on WeChat and then save them without downloading the original, which will reduce the file size.)

When I woke up from my extra hour-plus of sleep, I saw a notification on WeChat saying my manual review had passed—I got the green code! After that, all I had to do was wait until the evening to check in for the flight.

Boarding in Seattle

That evening, I went to the airport 3 hours early to check in. The business class check-in counter was completely empty. The agent just asked for my passport and had me show my green code. After checking my bags without any issues, she asked me to scan the QR code for the health declaration for entering and leaving the country—that is, the China Customs code, which you will need in many places after arrival.

Because this flight was made up mostly of international students, there were lots of cats and dogs around. Having them there while waiting to check in was honestly a joy. I did not pet them because I was worried that my hands might somehow make them sick during the pandemic, but even just looking at them made me happy.

About 1 hour before boarding, ground staff came by to make sure we had all obtained the customs code. Then, about half an hour before boarding, we lined up for a temperature check. If your temperature was normal, they put a small sticker on your passport. Once it was time to board, they boarded us in the order of business class + elite members, then from the back rows to the front.

Clearing Immigration/Customs in Shanghai

The flight was smooth and uneventful. DL289 had a stop in Seoul, South Korea (basically a crew change, which had nothing to do with passengers—we just stayed on the plane). For most of the trip, I just ate and slept. Since business class was in a separate pod, taking off my mask briefly for meals did not feel especially risky. Economy was also fine, since this flight was very empty and most people were able to have an entire row to themselves.

Once we arrived in Shanghai and the plane had just parked, we could already see the ground staff waiting for us in full protective gear. Given Shanghai’s cold, damp winter weather, that really looked tough! While we were waiting for staff to come onboard, the Delta crew handed out a small snack pack to everyone with a small bottle of water, a pack of cookies, and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. Nice touch.

After a little while, staff wearing protective suits came onto the plane and had us deplane in batches, with business class in the first group.

After getting off the plane, you could see the airport divided into different areas with quarantine barriers. First, you went to a small table to show your customs health code and passport, and the staff would casually chat with you a bit. Then you walked farther to get the confirmation slip and test tube needed for the nasal swab, and then walked a bit more to a temporary structure for the swab. It went very deep—did not exactly hurt, but it felt strange and intensely uncomfortable, especially when they inserted it and rotated it. But the woman who did my swab was extremely gentle. She warned me beforehand that it might be a little uncomfortable and inserted it very gently, so props to her. After the swab, you went through immigration/customs, where they checked your temperature, and then the officer had you do facial recognition before letting you through.

After that, we picked up our checked luggage. Once you had your bags, staff at the exit separated people into different registration areas depending on whether you were a resident of Zhejiang/Jiangsu/Anhui, a resident of Shanghai, or from another region. Zhejiang’s policy at the time was “14+7+7”: the first 14 days were centralized quarantine, followed by 7+7 days of home quarantine. For those first 14 days of centralized quarantine, you could choose either 3 days in a Shanghai hotel + 11 days in a Zhejiang hotel, or all 14 days in a Shanghai hotel. Because we were eager to get closer to home and had heard that the Zhejiang hotels were generally fine, we all chose the 3+11 option.

Because there were not many Zhejiang-bound passengers on our flight, we also had to wait for Zhejiang passengers arriving from other flights at another terminal before heading to the hotel together. So we waited more than 1 hour before finally boarding the bus. While waiting, staff had everyone scan the airport’s arriving passenger information QR code, which required a domestic Chinese phone number and your final destination in China. This code would be used again when checking in at the hotel.

Quarantine in Shanghai and Zhejiang

The bus drove for more than 1 hour and took us to Jinshan District. Only when we arrived at the entrance did we find out that we would be staying at the Shanghai Jinshan Primus Hotel. At the hotel entrance, staff came onboard and asked us to scan a code and fill out a questionnaire about which flight we had arrived on and some other personal details. After that, we could go to the front desk. Our luggage was first taken out by staff and disinfected together. At check-in, we had to pay 3000 including the deposit. At the hotel where I stayed, the room rate was 450 per day, plus an optional meal plan of 60/80/100 per day (the 100 option included two meat dishes, but honestly after comparing for a few days, it was not much different from the 60 option...). After check-in, we could pick up our luggage and go upstairs to our rooms.

When I opened the room door, I was pretty satisfied. I got a bright ocean-view room, and from the window I could even see the nearby coastal park and a small zoo there. (When I got bored during the day, I would watch the two black swans swimming around, which was actually kind of fun.) The room had two beds. One had the bedspread and bedding removed, while the other was set up normally for sleeping. The hotel floor had a rubber covering, which felt oddly premium underfoot—kind of like stepping on poop (?)—and I heard it was for disinfection purposes.

Then on the morning of 1/26, we were bused to a hotel in Zhejiang for 11 days of quarantine. For Zhejiang quarantine, those of us arriving on 1/26 were assigned to the Tongxiang Anlan Hotel. The hotel was very new and clean, but no food delivery and no package delivery were allowed. During quarantine, the hotel only allowed 3 opportunities to buy things on your behalf from one designated supermarket downstairs and one designated fruit shop. The view outside was not as nice as the Shanghai hotel, but both the room and meal costs were cheaper: 300/day for the room + 80/day for meals + 200 yuan for 2 rounds of PCR/serology testing. After we got to the room, staff slipped a piece of paper through the door with the bill, and we scanned the QR code to pay, noting our name + room number.

When we entered, the room already had a health kit (including masks, alcohol hand sanitizer, a mercury thermometer, etc.), as well as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothbrushes, and tissues for the full 11 days. On a table in the hallway, there were also electric kettles and 3 large jugs of Nongfu Spring bottled water. Basic needs were definitely covered.