I know someone who successfully left Shanghai after the 14 day quarantine in first week of May. The train route was Shanghai - Hangzhou (overnight transfer) - Nanjing (overnight transfer), from Nanjing they got on the train to Chengdu. Here are the policies as of 5/15:
Overnight train transfer allowed: Nanjing, Xi'an, Zhenzhou, Hangzhou (only people in closed loop out of international quarantine allowed)
Transfer allowed but no overnight: Changsha, Lianyungang, Wenzhou, Jinan, Quzhou
No transfer allowed at all: Ningbo, almost all of Hubei, Nanchang

I suggest looking for tickets to those cities that allow transfer and buy ticket to Chengdu separately.

Thanks for these suggestions.

Train transfer is out of question since I have lot of luggage :-)

The danger with flight transfer, is that I might get stuck at transfer city if I miss the connecting flight or it's canceled. That would be a nightmare.

I will wait a week or so in Shanghai. Hopefully more flights will resume by May 30.

I really wish you luck. Your base asumption is that "plenty of places" in China will be and remain free of covid in the months to come. Might be worth re-examining that premise.

The recent variants have popped up in Shenzhen, Shenyang, Shanghai and Beijing despite all the best efforts at containment. As they say in the securities industry, recent performance is no indicator of future performance. Maybe things will get better, but maybe things will get worse. It is not inconceivable that you will find yourself in a city where their version of lockdown allows no escape, especially the smaller cities with no international flights. Please be careful, there is a small but not neglible chance you will find yourself in a Wuhan style lockdown in a city even less prepared to deal with it.

A lot of people in China tell me that "this is it", once Shanghai is cleared everything will be fine. Of course that's what we want and everyone thought that after Wuhan, then Ruili (the border town with the Myanmar crossing), then Manzhouli, then Shenzhen, Shenyang and Shanghai. But what I see is a pattern, the big cities have a difficult time dealing with it and smaller cities do much worse. And there is no (dare I say) scientific reason to predict that Shanghai will be the last. Man, I certainly hope so, but I see no medical or sceintific reason to think it necessarily has to be the last.

We are routing for you, but be careful in your choices and be prepared to move on quickly. Your strategy is to outrun the virus and lockdowns, quarantine and travel restrictions as they get imposed. But you know very well how that can happen with little or no warning. So I wish you safe and healthy travels, and also lots of luck! Keep us posted!

Sorry to have to capture this. I think this is a very deliberate slip of the tongue (or keyboard).

In fact there may be a certain logic for choosing to remain in Shanghai. If restaurants, etc. are open and movement is free, Shanghai could be enjoyable and you don't have to take any risks traveling.

Shanghai without crowds of foreign tourists and with light traffic could indeed be very pleasant.

That's a VERY big "If" though.

Friend of my partner is an MD in Beijing. Apparently they just went into lockdown today, RIP. They were supposed to meet at a medical conference in Scotland with them next week.. guess that's not happening anymore, they're not allowed to leave.

Should we create a new thread for "Current China Exit Policy"? This seems to also be an issue nowadays:

Final update at Shanghai Q hotel.

I am scheduled to be released at 5:30pm (arrival time of UA 857 at PVG) on May 23, after 14 days of Q.

Called 22 Marriott Bonvoy hotels in Shanghai that allow new bookings at Marriott app. To my surprise, NONE is accepting new guests. Why on the earth Marriott.com allows me to book? Marriott Ambassador service contacted the hotels on my behalf, to no avail. I actually booked JW Marriott Tomorrow Square, and they actually upgraded me to an executive suite. It seems comical that I won't be allowed to check in.

I figure that other hotels like Hilton etc. would do the same. I can continue to stay at Q hotel, but that does not seem appealing. So I decided to get out of Shanghai.

Unfortunately, there is nearly zero flight out of Shanghai, at least until May 28. Even that is not guaranteed. I don't want to arrive at the airport and find my flight canceled. Then I'll have to sleep on the terminal floor. So travel by air is off the table.

Almost all cities require additional 14 days Q for people from Shanghai, with an exception: Hangzhou. The local government announced on May 20 that folks from Shanghai only need to be quarantined for 7 days plus self monitoring for another 7 and number of PCR tests. So after 7 days in Hangzhou, I will be a free man. Yay!

Buying train tickets is no easy job since there are only a few trains still running. I used 12306 app, worked hard to check tickets once every 10 min. Finally I managed to grab a business class ticket to Hangzhou. There is no train after 5:30pm so I'll stay at Q hotel for an extra day, and take the train to Hangzhou on May 24.

There is very limited public transportation, and people walked 10-20 miles to the train station. My friend agrees to send a private car with Special COVID Permit to pick me up and drop me off at Hongqiao Railway Station.












Some pictures of food at Q hotel. This is expected. Many people in Shanghai fare worse than me. So I am not complaining.

I can also order some extra food too.

Look forward to my journey to Hangzhou, and final 7 days of Q before freedom. Will update that later.

Same can be said for European Hotel Rooms not having the smell of instant noodles..

Will you be able to leave the hotel after 5:30pm on 5/23?

yes, but no hotel would accept me. if I get out of my Q hotel, I can't return.

So, I'll stay at my prison for another night.

Heard from my expat friends in Shanghai last night. Day 66 of quarantine but they were allowed passes that permitted one person per household 7 hours to roam around Huacao. Her photos show how devastatingly quiet the city is.

There are pictures circulating on weixin of people sleeping under the overpasses at Hongqiao Rail Station, they cannot get hotels or tickets to another city.