May be kb1992 is semi-retired or worked for himself, and will be in China for the long haul just like the last time he was there. IIRC, he is originally from China and has local ties and family there.

Like others, I have left and not looking back, and hope won't have to go back until Covid restriction is over in China. Having done four quarantines in China and each time getting worse and longer, I am not getting paid enough to go back.

Did you have any difficulties getting out?

i bet the lavs still reeked of Double Happiness.

There's a thread in the UA forum about a family trying to escape from Shanghai with a little dog. They're concerned that they'll be denied boarding and then sent to separate quarantine centers, including a young child.

Direct link https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...amily-dog.html

Vice just posted a video on Shanghai and... my God this is awful.

I'll likely need to make a trip to China this summer for family reasons, entering on a mix of travel documentation. Wondering what folks think of the following two itinerary options taking into account travel documentation, current quarantine situation, travel cost, and overall risk.

I'll be applying for a new Taibaozheng associated with this trip, and using that for entering China, which is probably the part that makes it the most complicated.

1. SFO -> TPE [via Taiwanese passport]
2. 21 days in Taiwan
3. TPE -> ??? [via Taibaozheng]
4. 4 weeks in China
5. ??? -> SFO

vs:

1. SFO -> TPE [via Taiwanese passport]
2. 21 days in Taiwan
3. TPE -> ??? [via Taibaozheng]
4. 4 weeks in China
5. ??? -> TPE [via Taiwanese passport]
6. ??? days in Taiwan, or direct transit to US
7. TPE -> SFO

I'll be visiting either Qingdao or Shenzhen, will narrow this down based on the COVID situation closer to time of travel.

EDIT: clarified documentation used and lengths of stay

Transit isn't allowed in TPE; transit to enter China in general is only allowed if there are no direct flights, which is not the case if you're starting in SF. Also, if you're only planning on spending 4 weeks in China, most of that will be eaten up by quarantine.

Is "transit" via TPE allowed for Taiwanese passport holders? I imagine the answer is different for US->CN vs CN->US?

I'm not transiting TPE the first time through, I have a Taiwanese passport and would be spending ~20 days, including quarantine, staying a few days to visit family, and taking care of affairs. Second time through TPE would ideally effectively be transit but it's OK for me to re-quarantine, though that would suck.

Yes, for China I'm factoring in, best case, 3 weeks of quarantine + 1 week to take care of essential business.

Yes, as a Chinese passport holder (RoC), this is allowed.

But you won't be in transit in TPE, but rather enter the RoC "normally", ie having to adhere to all the covid protocols that will (possibly) still be active by that time there in the RoC. You'll (most probably - unless things change a lot till then) have an entirely different ticket to actually enter the PRC from the RoC, ie a direct flight from TPE to a PRC airport.

So in your situation, all that really counts is the flight from the RoC to the PRC.

For the return flight, I'd wait and see. If the RoC has stopped quarantine rules by then, probably a quick flight would make things more comfortable, so I'd book a ticket PRC to RoC, again (or even book RoC->PRC->RoC as a return) over a long haul flight Ex-PVG.

But things are most probably quite a bit different in few months time, so I'd wait and see much closer to your travel date.

6 months ago, China's strategy of 0 covid looked still very solid (despite having no exit out of it), now, it's looking more like doom than anything else.

The current thinking in China is that there isn't any hope of zero covid ending before the CCP Congress later this year.

Thanks for the advice. Would you happen to know what the best forum is to get info on whether there are new Taibaozheng issuance restrictions, etc. currently? Would also want to ask around to see if there are travel agents or other facilitators I can hire to help me with booking the paperwork (there's a few steps I need to do before I can get to Taibaozheng).

Agree with YuropFlyer above.
If Taiwan still has quarantine on step 5 of option 2 I don't really see a benefit to going back to Taiwan unless you need to. You can also transit out of HKG or many other countries or find a direct flight back to SFO.

The only Taiwan thread we have here is https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/show...0&goto=newpost, I don't know of other forums.

I enquired about TBZ a couple of months ago and the current requirement is that you need to be present in person. Before, you can fedex documents to family in TW. I got this info from calling Lion Travel (雄獅旅行社). I don't know about applying from anywhere else. If you're in the US I suggest going to Chinatown travel agencies to ask.

So Beijing changed inbound quarantine rules yesterday:
- Need to stay out of Beijing for 14 days before being allowed in.
- If flying directly to BJ, need to do 14 days in centralized quarantine + 7 days health monitoring OR 10 days in centralized quarantine + 7 days home isolation (if you live in BJ)

For close contacts of COVID cases that require centralized isolation: reduced to 10 days centralized isolation + 7 days home isolation
Isolation for secondary close contacts has also been reduced to 7 days (home isolation)