We don’t have our HK departure-specific code yet.

But I have Wechat PRC Pay (the verified type) and it seems like I can fill in my arrival info for Shenzhen NHC in there,

They run on mini programs in WeChat, but I have no clue about the technical details. I use the Guangdong one in shenzhen, the HuNan one when I’m there, and the aliPay one when I’m in shanghai.

But anyway, I’m more concerned about the record at the time of vaccination, not the time of health code app in September. I would much prefer to have a vaccination record formally tied to something digitally or on a database. Not just a fapio with the infamous “chop.” If I’m gonna be in the granddaddy of all surveillance states I at least want it to work for this case.

Even though I’m always amazed at how much power a blurry smudged chop can have in China.

-I should have clarified that there is a good chance that the "native app" exists as a WeChat miniprogram (and, probably standalone as well)
-I would prefer this (bolded text) as well, but I'm not holding my breath
-if I am able to get vax info uploaded to any of my existing health code apps, that won't help me come back here (also in September)
-it would be useful if people who are flying here within the next month or two provided info on their travel health code apps so that we can install them on our phones

My boss just flew in this week and is in quarantine. He had the Pfizer vaccination in the states, I’ll ask him what he did for the vaccine portion of the green code application.

When I applied in March there was a place at the bottom to answer vaccination status and probably upload a photo of a CDC card if applicable.

I got the green code without vaccination obviously.

Will be - but currently not officially approved right?

Mother did say NHC approving biontech will tip her over to take it, since TGA already approved it. Pls let me know if the approval becomes official.

You’re saying you are going to a government run hospital to receive the BioNtech vaccine that hasn’t been approved for use in China yet? Or am I misunderstanding you and you’re getting the Sinopharm one? I would be shocked if you could get the BioNtech vax in country without it being approved yet. If you do, please post some pictures of the vax they show you before they inject it as I’d be very interested in how this goes down.

As far as the electronic record of the vaccine. I’ve received both doses of the vaccine in China (Sinopharm) and I got the paper with the stamp as expected plus there is an electronic record in the shanghai health app that shows the date and batch number of each dose. I imagine this is same countrywide.

As an aside, they are running bus loads of workers from the industrial parks around my office on a daily basis to get vaccinated. Some bigger apartment complexes are now posting signs at their entrance showing what % of their residents are vaccinated. People are being heavily encouraged to get the vaccine now so I hope this is good news for a somewhat more humane entry/visa policy going forward.

How is supply? I had an employee in Suzhou who had appointment this week turned back because they ran out. Told him to be patient and go back as soon as he can.

Ive had the same thing happen to employees as well. Namely going to get their second dose and being told that the only shot available that day is Sinovac and their first dose was Sinopharm so they need to come back in a few weeks when Sinopharm is in stock again. This being China I don’t expect these supply problems to last very long and I expect everyone will be vaxed by end of summer.

It would be especially interesting/logical if they got Tier 1 international arrival cities to a sufficient vaccination level that they could allow international vaccinated arrivals to just be “quarantined” for 14-21 days by remaining in the city limits but not confined to a hotel room. What a dream.

He said he tested positive for the IgM antibody due to the vaccine, and other than that it made no difference. You can upload the vaccine record as a Jpeg image but they didn’t seem to really care.

Some interesting articles here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...oses-isolation
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ff-drawing-ire

TLDR

• 20m doses/day
• More than 660m doses administrated
• Hong Kong is allowing senior executives who have been vaccinated to skip quarantine when traveling to the city
• Zhong Nanshan, a top adviser on China’s Covid response, said last month that 72.9% of the population needs to be vaccinated for China to reach herd immunity.
• But that estimation is typically based on vaccine efficacy rates of 80%, which only one of the six shots China is currently administering achieved in clinical trials, and could be one reason China is reluctant to ease other restrictions.

Updating the numbers based on the above:

72.9% of 1.4b is 1.02b people
There's a new 3 shot vaccine, but there's also a 1 shot vaccine, so let's call it even and assume everything is 2 shot
Required doses is 2.04b

About 330m people are fully vaccinated right now (660m / 2)

At the current rate (10m people/day), that gives us (1020m-330m)/10 = 69 days or 10 August 2021.

If they can accelerate vaccine production to 15m people/day, that gets us to 46 days or 18 July 2021.

If they can accelerate vaccine production to 20m people/day, that gets us to 35 days or 6 July 2021.

They are definitely making a push for everyone to get vaccinated. But I just can't see them opening up this year even if they have 90% of the population vaccinated by September. All the moves have been in the wrong direction recently. More Covid tests for internal travel, increase in quarantine times by one or two weeks, etc. etc. I hope I'm wrong but I think they are going to be extra cautious because they managed to scare their population about Covid so thoroughly last year, they can't risk case spikes.

I just hope it becomes easier for two populations:

• Chinese citizens living outside of China where it's annoying to enter China and annoying to come back (in the case of living in the US)
• Business travelers, people wanting to work/study in China

Don't think anyone cares about leisure tourism at this point

There are also those of us who have family in China.

FYI American students in China have been able to return to China since Fall 2020. However, their student resident’s permit are not valid for entry. They need another visa type.

Furthermore, certain work visas allow entry into China. I don’t really understand the nuances of this.

Source: I know many US citizens that have come to China in 2020 and 2021.

I am somewhat skeptical of this. There are a lot of stories in the news like this: https://www.universityworldnews.com/...10419161154322

In this regard there isn’t any difference between entry for citizens of US or an African country.

I suppose a school could try to give the paperwork to let someone apply for a new student visa but from what I know most haven’t been doing that and have just told students stuck outside China to take online classes in Fall 20 and Spring 21.

I know someone who entered China in Fall 20 with the purpose to study but they entered on a work visa with a PU letter.

Example https://www.isd.pku.edu.cn/info/1532/2617.htm

I also lack clarity on the nuances, but from what I understand, X (student) and Z (work) visas are now valid for entry only and expire within ~30 days. The good news is that these are much more likely to permit entry than other visa types. After arriving in China, you are expected to convert them to RPs. My RP still works for entry. Others don't seem to, even though they look the same to me. One thing I can say is that once you have a Z based RP, don't let it lapse, even if you have to take a job that isn't a job. On a semi related note, the labor board people raided one of my companies on Friday, inspected work permits, and interviewed foreigners about what their job duties entail.

That's just a summer school program. I think the idea of spending two weeks in quarantine followed by a few more weeks of summer school studying simply doesn't make sense.
I would presume the calculus for a full-time student would be different.

Maybe things have changed during the course of the past 20 years, but my summer school classes were close to useless. However, being able to hang out in China was not (i.e. learned way more Chinese outside of the classroom).

It’s hard to find explicit wording on these programs because their websites are not great but they were all online for Fall 20 and Spring 21 semesters unless you could find your own way into China. Schools are not issuing X1 or X2 visas and Fall 21 is completely up in the air.

https://www.isd.pku.edu.cn/HOME/ADMI...e_Programs.htm

This doesn’t match with my experience. Students can’t get into China at the moment unless they are going to NYU Shanghai or the Duke campus I believe. All Chinese universities are not able to get visas for their international students.

Workers who get the special letters can get visas issued and people with RP’s that are valid for work can get in now. Of course it comes with a 3 or 4 week quarantine/monitoring period which should deter all but the most dedicated sinophile.

As one of the first participants in Duke China, I feel compelled to post the follow pics from our trip.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9362156030.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...69d432de43.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...25697d5ee0.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...881f5d9dc3.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ac90c2d326.jpg

Wow awesome pics moondog!

Didn't know about these two schools, found a few details:
https://shanghai.nyu.edu/returntocam...duate-students
https://globaled.duke.edu/programs/china
https://dukekunshan.edu.cn/en/fall-2...duate-students

Duke China summer program is still supposed to be virtual, couldn't find info on Fall 20 or Spring 21
Wonder how NYU Shanghai got special permission

One of my friends' kid in US was admitted by dukekunshan earlier but then was admitted by duke and decided to attend duke instead. From what I heard dukekunshan was not going to be virtual.

I don't know about the US but here in Australia they've been issuing X1 visas all throughout the pandemic. It's not the school that issues the visa, but the embassy/consulate. Of course you need to have proof of an actual offer from the university to get the visa.

While schools don't issue visas, they are instrumental in supporting X1s.

People are melting down mentally over a few covid cases in Guangzhou and in Shenzhen near the border of HK. The level of fear, lockdown, and overall attitude about this is pretty troubling for the timeline of the border ever opening again.

Well people are taking the gaokao from the hospital now...

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202106/1225596.shtml

The second most populous state in Australia has been in lockdown for almost two weeks due to a similar outbreak.

All of us in Shenzhen are being rounded up for covid testing in the streets now. Seems like my only chance at being in a place that shuts up about covid is going back to Florida.

Any exemptions for vaccinated (+14 days) persons?

Not that I’m aware of. I don’t believe there’s any segregation by vaccination status in China yet.

Absolutely no difference in treatment between vaccinated and unvaccinated in China. This stuff is gonna go on for at least another year. I think I’m gonna give up my career here and head back before the end of the year. Not worth it being locked into a country when others are opening back up.

I'm starting to agree. I had serious plans of moving to China since I created this account (Jan 2020) and then it wasn't possible anymore.

At this point, I'm not willing to quarantine anywhere*, test or another vaccine is fine. But who knows if I will have to wait 2 months (per post #612) or 2 years.

* This has nothing to do with China. Argentina, Chile, and Colombia are all wonderful places but since they have a quarantine I won't go there either.

Australia also - both with its biosecurity and also its recent expatriate tax policies*. This pandemic surely makes for a far more larger, intolerant and parochial world

*aggressive tax policy driven by a need to raise revenue to fund job assistance programs.

China was an exceptional place to be from about August 2020 to now, compared to the rest of the world. But now, the US is looking like the spot to be as it’s opening up.

China is going to be in this current state of affairs for quite a while.

Between that and the heavy US taxes coming down the pipeline it’s time to think harder about whether it’s worthwhile.

Heavy taxes are coming wherever you are in the world. Someone's gotta pay for all this.

Sorry I should have clarified- ditching the high pay double taxed expat job and retiring early or just simplifying. The effort vs personal benefit equation. Someone indeed does need to pay for all this mess and I’m not convinced I want to be part of it.