One more month.

Bit of an administrative imperative for travellers between China and Australia as Australia has said they will not recognise non-TGA vaccines for home quarantine.

I've been hearing August 15 approval date for the past three months, but some hospitals /clinics already have doses.

Ah ok good to hear.

I’m tentatively planning to enter China around Q4, need to sort out paperwork and visa and stuff.

If Pfizer aka BioNTech booster is available by then hopefully the process may be easier.

As of now I’m still planning to not get the vaccine in China or in the USA. It seems like it provides me zero travel benefit. And I certainly don’t care about it from a health standpoint enough to offset the hassle.

I’m flying PVG-SFO August 2 and then SFO-PVG Sep 1

Getting vaxed in China (well, Shanghaied for at least) is now pretty easy, and I do derive some sense of calm from the fact that my travel health code from the fact my travel health code reflects this.

The immigration attorneys that manage my travel have had dozens of people who were vaccinated in China denied their green health code when applying to return to China.

And my unvaxed coworker just flew on the SFO-PVG flight less than 2 weeks ago.

It seems like it really isn’t part of their criteria

Could you share which hospital/clinic that offer them?

Since the vaccine is not approved for use in China I would be very surprised if any clinic or hospital would be willing to break the law and supply it to someone.

The key issue with leaving and coming back to China is not the vaccine, it's the magic 8 ball that is the QR code to board the flight. Your entire career and life in China rests on someone deigning you worthy to return, despite meeting all the written requirements.

Looks like Pfizer approval might come sooner than expected! https://www.scmp.com/news/china/scie...ccine-approved

Are there any direct, commercial flights going into China rn from the USA? Not willing to deal with this extortionist "pay what you can afford" China Eastern hidden commercial flight scheme

Sure there are. They are all expensive, it’s not China Eastern causing the price rise. It’s the policy of the government of the PRC limiting flights. Expect between $3k-$5k one way for economy. $8k plus for biz.

What direct flights are there? Genuinely can't find any. China Eastern is operating direct flights that don't seem to be indexed even on their site but the pricing is way more outrageous than the 8K for business you listed (which is not extremely far from pre-covid pricing for NYC <-> Shanghai)

I've recently started looking for JAX-PVG (late Sep/early Oct), and there are lots of sub $1000 options IF I connect in places like Canada, Korea, or Hong Kong. But, the US and Chinese airlines are all $3k plus as you point out. I'm now thinking about trying to go Thailand for a month or so before China. I'll make some phone calls when my dates get closer; I don't need to be in China badly or urgently enough to justify throwing away $3k.

SFO-PVG, SEA-PVG, DTW-PVG, DFW-PVG, JFK-PVG, LAX-CAN, LAX-SZX, LAX-XMN, LAX-PEK. There you go. Happy searching.

You are living in a pre-covid world if you think you'll be able to enter China with any of those options. It seems you left without really understanding what it takes to get back in, I hope you'll be ready to pay that coin for the direct flights if you want to get back.