Summer in the city

Beijing delivery people sanitizing their food boxes before heading out on their morning runs. 

You can find fantastic melons in China. 

A bad air day in Beijing so I switched over from my cloth virus mask to a pollution mask. Despite a lot of poverty and many many smokers China has, amazingly, managed to quell the pandemic. On the other hand the air pollution problem persists. 

As you enter Solana Mall in Beijing your image comes up on a screen, along with your temperature. 

Above 3 photos: Qianmen pedestrian street in Beijing on a sultry summer evening. 

If riders' masks aren't covering their nose Beijing subway security will tell  to them to cover it up. 

Once in a while in Beijing I spot a roadside knife sharpening service. I saw this guy out the other evening so I rushed home, gathered up all of our kitchen knives, then took them to be sharpened. Regardless of the size, sharpening cost is 10 kuai per knife, about $1.40. A real bargain, and it's great to have sharp knives again for cooking.  This is just one of the many things I'll miss about living in China. 

China post pandemic

 The 2 weeks of quarantine wasn't bad at all. It's actually a great way to recover from jet lag. I studied Chinese, did yoga, cooked, cleaned, ran up and down the stairs every evening for aerobic exercise. 

On day 14 of quarantine a group of us were bussed to a large hangar-like building way on the outskirts of Beijing. We got our 3rd covid test there, then later that night I was informed that I'd tested negative and thus my quarantine was finished. 

There are now very few cases of covid in China. So how'd they do it? They stayed indoors for several months, all wore masks, and use a health app on their smart phones. China now has countless checkpoints as in the photo above. To enter cafes, stores, museums, parks, etc. you must first display your Green health app. If it's Red instead of Green, that means you must go into quarantine immediately for 14 days. Some people have complained that their app has inexplicably flipped off of Green for no apparent reason. Each morning when I open my app I'm always a bit apprehensive, but thus far it has remained green. 

Above photo and below: unfortunately I only have about a month left in China so I'm trying to see as much as possible-- temples, palaces, parks, etc. Things are not back to normal in China but they're getting there. On subways, in shops, museums, malls, cafes people wear masks. Many places require seeing your phone health app and taking your temperature before you can enter, and some hotels prohibit foreigners as guests. Still, places are open, you can travel, and-- incredibly-- cases of covid are now rare in China. 

It's going to be really hard to leave China and return to the US, especially since covid is so much worse in the US now. It didn't have to be this way. Back in February the US could have worked with China and learned a lot about how to effectively deal with the pandemic. In any case, I've had a fantastic 4 years here, and feel fortunate to have traveled a lot in this amazing country. 

Back to Beijing

The first requirement for the journey was that all 120 of us passengers had to get a covid test in DC.We then departed several days later, and it was a long trip back to Beijing, about 48 hours total. The DC to Guam charter flight was great because we were put in 1st class. Not sure why, maybe because my last name begins with a B. After waiting hours at Guam Airport in the middle of the night, we then boarded a converted medical plane, photo below. As you can see there were no windows, overhead compartments, entertainment screens, etc. Catching some zzzzzzzs during the flight from Guam to China. 

We landed in Tianjin, a port city not far from Beijing, then all 120 of us were tested a second time for covid. We then had to wait there for about 7 hours until we had confirmation that all of us had tested negative. Anyone testing positive would have to return to the US on that same medical plane. 

A convoy of buses then transported us from Tianjin to Beijing, about a two hour trip. The highway was closed off to other vehicles so even though it was rush hour there was no traffic. Below you can see people from our housing unit waiting to greet us, some wearing hazmat suits. 

So now we're in strict 14 day quarantine, and we're not supposed to even go out on our back porch. Once in awhile we see a housing complex worker walk by, making sure we don't go outside. Sometimes another worker comes by and sprays disinfectant around outside our house just for good measure. So far quarantine isn't bad at all. We do yoga, cook, clean, study, etc. Due to jet lag, my siesta has been stretching from around noon to 3 pm. As for food, we order it, then after it's placed outside on our front porch we have to wait 3 minutes before we open the door to get it. 

Each day there are various quarantine classes on the Internet. Dawn watched the towel art class yesterday and created the monkey. 

Back again to DC next month so we also keep busy organizing our belongings in preparation for the move. 

As of today, 5 days down and 9 more to go. Today's quarantine video: Oodles of noodles.