Recently I need to go to China for a business trip. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the price of the ticket is eight times higher than before, but life and work still need to be continued. While the expensiveness of the ticket is certain, however, the arrangement of the quarantine remains a mystery. Where is the quarantine hotel, for one? And a question that plagued me long before I left:
Can I receive courier parcel during the 14 days?
Why? You know, in China’s urban life, if there is no online shopping , it's beyond recognition. Besides those who live in China, people like me who travel there every now and then, shop online like crazy upon arrival. Technically speaking , I do not need to go out to store , to buy anything. During the 14 days quarantine , I have plan to do some online teaching and a lot of things needs to be done over internet. There could be things that I need all of a sudden, if I can still do online shopping and receive parcels, it will give me a peace of mind.
I asked several friends who live in China about this and none of them could give me a straight answer. I also checked some online forums; it seemed all different. The best answer I got was that you can order online, but the parcel will not be delivered to you timely. The hotel will receive all the parcels you ordered, and give it to you after 14 days. This arrangement would not help me at all.
Still pondering the question, I landed in Shanghai after a 10 hour flight. With another 6 hours going through the testing, and lengthy arranging process, I finally arrived at the hotel.
Well, can I receive courier parcel during the 14-day quarantine?
Now, it’s two days down in the quarantine life, I found myself expecting a lot for the doorbell to ring. When the doorbell “ding dong” , it means possibly two things. One, my meal is there, and two , my parcel arrived. With these two things, life is beautiful.
You may want to know which hotel I stayed… I learned that in a hard way.
After arriving at the Shanghai airport and have all the test, I started want to know the hotel very eagerly. According to the regulation, if you land in Shanghai from overseas, even your final destination is somewhere else, you need to be quarantined in Shanghai for 14 days, then travel to the final destination.
Which hotel am I going stay? I asked the person who registered at the airport, says I don't know. I asked the person who checked the healthy registration QR code, says I don't know. I asked the staff who led us to the shuttle bus, says I don't know. I wondered what would happen if I asked the bus driver? Will he say “I don't know”? Well, that's going to be very funny, the driver doesn't know which hotel we are going… how can he drive us there?! I can’t help to imagine a movie theme, the driver started the bus and drove on the road. He is getting someone who’s on the phone to tell him the route on the go. “Turn left at the next traffic light… Turn right at the roundabout…”
No, this is not true! He must know which hotel we are going, it’s just they don’t want to tell us. After all inquiries passengers made, we got an idea that the hotel is about an hour drive from the airport.
With this limited piece of Information, around 20 of us got on the bus. I'm very curious, what are the reasons for these people withhold that simple Information of what the quarantine hotel is? We got on the bus based on the trust of the organizing work by the authority, but don't know where we're going, don't know how much it's going to cost, and, we are asked to turn in our passport and return back after checking in the hotel…
It is the morning rush hour and the traffic is heavy. We’ve droved for an hour and no sign showed that we are near to the destination. As we drive, I saw those high rises and fancy hotels. Those are the hotels that I used to stay when I travel to Shanghai for business when I still live in China. I almost thought the driver wanted to show us around and then drive us to a rural hotel. Soon I dropped the idea because obviously going to a rural hotel does not need to drive into downtown. I secretly thought that the quarantine hotel is in downtown.
“Excuse me, it's more than an hour now. I cannot hold it. How long are they still?” someone shouted, wanting to go to the toilet.
“Three kilometres.” The driver answered back.
WOW, there was cheery in the bus. It looks like all passengers have been waiting for too long.
After a while, we passed by a hotel and I saw someone in the parking lot waving to the direction of our bus. This is it! I said to myself.
At last we arrived at our quarantine hotel, a hotel situated in the heart of the Shanghai city. I never thought I was going to be quarantined downtown Shanghai. Now it is time to find out whether I can receive courier parcels.
I finally got the answer from the people works at a hotel. Yes, I can receive parcels . But there are three limitations.
1. Cannot buy alcohol
2. The parcel needs to be less than 2 kilograms
3. Delivery to room door only three times a day, (fixed morning, noon and evening) not upon arrival.
It is great! As long as I can receive parcels, I don't mind having some limitations!
This parcel delivery service during the quarantine time really helped. However, I did find the hotel WiFi was not fast enough for me to hold online teaching. I immediately ordered mobile WiFi offered by China Telecom and it arrived the same day. I can also order some fruit and have it delivered to my room if I want to.
Although the pandemic and the quarantine life is very unfortunate, among all the miserable, I find such service very heart-warming. These workers are like angels wearing the white PPE gear. To reduce the chance to be infected, they normally leave right away after pushing the doorbell, and leave the parcel on the small table which is taken out from the room. When I open the door, what I see is only their back. But I want to say to them, thank you!!
note: This is my all personal experience but subject to this very trip only.
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