moondog

I don't think that's my ceiling pic that I posted in the other thread, but my first room had the same issue. The hotel forced me to move down the hall. That was annoying because I had a lot of stuff. I preferred the bad ceiling room because it faced the courtyard instead of the main street, where people were reveling in freedom.

Palal

I had a nice view of the bridge from my room. I only had one issue - I blew the circuit breaker and couldn't figure out how to turn one of the phases in the room back on. Turns out the breakers were in the ceiling above the entrance

What I found to be super amusing is how they just dump you out in the middle of the street at the end of quarantine.

moondog

Please provide their contact info when you have a chance. I met a guy on Friday who arranged his booking + car directly with the hotel in advance (i.e. he didn't avail of the normal VIP channel). I'm guessing that the CP is also possible via direct bookings. But, I want to reiterate a point you mentioned: don't think of these places as hotels in the traditional sense.

Side note: the Wyndham dude was removed from there on day 3 because his arrival test was positive, then spent days 4 and 5 in a cubicle, and days 6 through 14 inside the Italian Consulate, which he liked the most. He is an Italian citizen.

joesk

Approximately one week out, Jan 3 for return via PVG on DL, if the flights operate. Crew sick outs/flight operations obliterated the schedule from the US, Dec 19-28. I hope that this week flights start operations again, looks like Dec 30/SEA and 31/DTW might go. So far spouse is requesting a quarantine hotel stay through work/industry contacts. His final destination after quarantine is Beijing, he's hotel operations, I'm former airline staff. Happy to hear any recommendations and advise from FT folks on the forum or by msg. Much appreciated and Thank you

moondog

Follow the Delta news closely, and maybe book United as a backup (they will figure out a way to continue flying).

Palal

The name in Chinese characters: 兴荣温德姆至尊豪廷酒店
https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=bb052...=2&form=S00027

Full address
上海市浦东新区浦东大道2288号上海兴荣温德姆至尊豪廷酒店33层

2288 Pudong Ave, Pudong, Shanghai, China, 200090
+86 21 5852 6666

Palal

Ok a few more points for those doing quarantine in ShangHai:

End of 2-week Quarantine:
I was let out exactly at the same hour as my arrival on the 15th day - so it was 14 x 24-hour periods. When you are let out you are literally dumped on the street - I called a taxi to take me to my observation hotel. DiDi does not let your register directly with them, but there is a way to order a DiDi through AliPay. You can also order other taxi services through AliPay, but DiDi seems to be the smoothest, although they seem to require a local card, while you can pay for others with an international card tied to your AliPay account.

You really want to make sure you have a working local phone by the end of quarantine. Nihao mobile must be making a lot of money right now (you can order a SIM card to your quarantine hotel through them). Keep your proof of quarantine form safe - you'll need it for the next few weeks. If this is your first time in China or you haven't been here for a decade or longer, be prepared to re-learn how to do basic things, and what apps are needed for what.

Third Week of Observation (Shanghai)
Not all hotels in Shanghai allow you to check in for the third week of observation. There's no easy way to check. I ended up at the JinJiang tower hotel. The hotel contracts with a doctor, who I never saw in person. I had to report my temp 2x / day and then go do 2 NAT tests.

IMPORTANT - NAT tests during 3rd week: When they send you to the community center to do the NAT test in your third week, make sure you register for it through wechat. If you don't - you'll need to get the paper printout the next day, the results won't automatically be uploaded to the cloud, and your local health code won't turn green at the end of the week without manual intervention. It's not a straight forward process to do it (you do it on the spot), but it will save you more headaches down the line.

The local ShangHai health code was doing weird things. First it was green during quarantine, then red, then green again when they let me out. It then turned yellow the day after and stayed yellow throughout the rest of my stay there. When I boarded the plane to PEK,
Technically, you're not supposed to leave your place of stay with a yellow code, unless you have a good reason to, but in practice nobody checks, except in a few shopping centers - avoid those.

Flying to Beijing:
The Beijing HealthKit [do a search in English in WeChat or AliPay - the English version works for foreign passports] (which you need to fly to PEK) will display an error message for 21 days, and then will magically turn on, showing "no unusual conditions" / green on day 22. Don't plan on flying until day 22 after your arrival.
You will do your last NAT test on Day 21 in the morning. If you don't want to do another test to fly to PEK, make sure your flight takeoff is within 48 hours of your last test - so if you do your NAT test at 8AM on day 21, get the earlier flights to PEK from SHA. You will need a green local heath code to enter the airport. In my case, I got away with showing a screenshot of the local green health code. Your NAT, the arrow app (showing where you've been in the last 2 weeks) and Beijing healthkit will be checked at check/in while going through security/at the gate.

One more tip - take screenshots of everything, including all QR codes, and the green health codes - when they become green. You never know when then will want to glance at the green health code

moondog

Whenever I'm confronted with requests for random health codes, my first response is to say "I don't speak Chinese", and this works 90% of the time.

For the other 10% (e.g. checking in for UA857), somebody will give you a QR code, and tell you exactly what to do.

Screenshots are definitely useful, but if you limit yourself to Wechat and Ali, you can pull up the live versions with ease. Our Shanghai green codes don't have 5 stars at present, and everybody knows this.

moondog

I thought everyone coming here has working cell phones, but I suppose some of those who are joining new companies* might not have them. While your hotels will definitely have fast wifi, you will still receive 1 or 2 actual phone calls per day. More importantly, when you're released, you might score Y700 like I did, but actual cash is useless if your goal is to go somewhere else. I've heard that Didi has a freeze on new customers. If you don't have an account, you are welcome to message me and I'll pull it off.

*ETA: Your companies should definitely cover this trivial expense. The problem is that you will have no ability to get a SIM directly from Unicom or China Mobile when you're locked up. I can't vouch for Nihao Mobile myself, but if they can get you a SIM that adheres to government requirements (e.g. number, name, passport are bonded), and their value added fee is reasonable, try them out.

moondog

In the event that they are unable to use didi on your own, I will front the costs.

Palal

Nihao mobile lets you get the sim directly. You may need to do a video call to them so that they can verify that you are you and your passport is in your hand - but they let you register the SIM and you then have a working number. Their rates are reasonable.

Re: DiDi - you can't register on the app, but if you go through AliPay, you can still use DiDi - AliPay feeds it your information and it's as if you already have an account with them.


One final thought on the arrival/quarantine procedures that occurred to me during my trip to SYX this last weekend from observing things in the last couple of months - most processes are extremely well-planned and they tend to work quite well. (e.g. getting a NAT test, or going through an airport) However, the processes are not very well linked together (e.g. "where do I get a NAT test?") and getting through this barrier can be challenging for non-Mandarin speakers. This is where word-of-mouth or knowing Chinese speakers is very helpful. Once you are going through a process - don't think/worry, just do. The biggest thing that may trip you up is that a process may not be designed for non-Chinese ID holders, and then you need to find a workaround.

joesk

Hopefully back on track DL3460/29Dec ICN -PVG makes DL284/29Dec PVG-DTW
DL3461/28Dec SEA-PVG makes DL288/30Dec PVG-SEA

Getting ready to return soon

MSPeconomist

Those are funny flight numbers for DL to use on this route. IIRC 3XXX usually means a RJ (Delta Connection carrier like SkyWest). Could these be KE codeshares, which would seem to be OK for leaving mainland China, but the reverse wouldn't work for entering China.

You might want to check also on the current rules for ICN transit.

ADDED: I just checked flight status on the DL app. DL 3460 says it's DL operated, so I'm now wondering whether it could be a ferry flight. It's showing on time, at 4:50 am-6:00 am ICN-PVG only. DL 284 is scheduled for PVG-ICN-DTW and left PVG at a totally different time, 11:14 am (delayed an hour and 9 minutes) with it also being delayed (an hour and 8 minutes) leaving ICN. It's already landed at DTW, only a half hour late.

DL 3461 SEA-ICN-PVG was all cancelled on December 28th (scheduled for 10:59 pm-3:50 am and 5:10 am-6:10 am). DL 288 (again totally different times) PVG-ICN-SEA was totally cancelled too. Scheduled times were 9:50 am-1:00pm and 2:50 pm - 8:10 am.

joesk

Flight Aware info

Again a few flight changes, but looks like ops closer to getting back on track

3457/3458 27Dec/28Dec (DTW)
3460/284 29Dec (DTW)
3461/287 30Dec/1Jan (SEA)

steveb1955

That's bloody impressive...I'm quarantining at the Shanghai Chuansha Novotel and so far have managed 6442 steps today....