ICN-PVG is only 511 miles (shorter than ORD-IAD or SFO-SEA) - it is about the same as flying from For Meyers to Atlanta (SW Florida to Georgia). Beijing is further away from Shanghai than ICN from Shanghai.
NRT-PVG is more than twice as far (longer than MIA-BOS or YVR-SAN)

Also taking landing fee and fuel charge into consideration, IIRC, NRT landing and take off fees are higher than other airports in the region.

At some point, I will go to China. But I'm not getting on a plane to go anywhere until there's no more SARS-CoV-2 community spread, there's a vaccine, or the airlines require a negative RT-PCR test within the past 2-3 days in order to board.

That's cool. Everyone should do what he/she is comfortable with. Personally, I have flown 4 RT in the last month and am dying to do a TPAC. I hope that some sort of option is available by fall as far as admission to an Asian country.

Covid19 14 day quarantine in China
 

no way anyone will spend two weeks in a designated hotel at own expense to travel to China. Chinese visitors to the USA in March for ConExpo show traveled through Canada to avoid travel ban. We are kind of easy to get to! China—maybe if you travel through Taiwan or elsewhere. Has anyone succeeded in this?

It is a blanket requirement. It applies to all PRC citizens (including Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong) coming arriving on an international flights (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) to quarantine for 14 days. All foreigners' existing visa has been revoked so no foreigners can enter China unless you are getting new visa t(issued after the travel restrictions were put in place in late March). There is no easy way or loop hole no to do quarantine unless you are from South Korea and Singapore (subject to another set of rules) that can apply special visa to enter without quarantine, but may still subject to quarantine when arriving back to Korea or Singapore.

After dealing that, there is the issue of find the flight.......

Are you kidding? This is SOP, and what people actually do. It isn't always a full 2 weeks though. The hotels are not that bad, and you can still enjoy FT in them.

If I really had to go, I'd do it. Of course, I'd have to get a new visa first and there aren't very many circumstances I could see being issued one, but if I absolutely had to go, I'd spend 2 weeks in a hotel at my own expense. I'm wondering when my own government will start applying some sensible rules to arriving visitors as well, like mandatory PCR testing before getting on a plane and mandatory PCR test on arrival and quarantine until you test negative.

Just a point of order - Taiwan citizens are not citizens of the PRC, nor are Hong Kong residents with British Overseas Passports. Taiwan has its own travel restrictions, which include a ban on all foreigners, and a ban on all transit passengers. There is talk of allowing certain business people into Taiwan with a 7 day quarantine, but that program specifically excludes American citizens and residents, or anyone flying from the USA. I've been waiting to go back to Taiwan, but it looks like Oct-Nov is the earliest they might open, and if the virus continues to spread in the USA, even that timeframe seems unlikely.

I am very concerned to read that people are flying from China to the USA via Canada especially as the US/Canada border is still closed to non-essential travel. I had a client who was forcibly re-routed from HK back to the USA directly as they were not permitted to fly HKG-YVR-USA, so I can't see how any Chinese national is flying to Canada and then transferring to the USA, it should not be possible unless there is corrupt activity occurring in the PNRs with Chinese airlines.

I'll be careful to avoid getting into omni territory here, but do need to clarify that citizens of Taiwan are not citizens of PRC, which is relevant to this thread because Taiwan has a very different set of travel restrictions than the PRC regarding flights including TPACs.

One of my colleagues who is a USA citizen with residency in Taiwan needed to make an emergency trip to the USA. He was allowed to enter the USA with no quarantine requirement at all, though he still chose to quarantine in the USA voluntarily out of consideration for others. When he returned to Taiwan he was required to quarantine at home for two weeks, under close watch by the authorities. He would not have been permitted to enter Taiwan were he not a legal resident. This was recent.

Taiwan is not currently allowing entry on tourist visas nor are they allowing transit passengers. Things may loosen up a bit in the time ahead, but the COVID-19 situation there is very good right now and they want to keep it that way.

That is the issue. No one enters the US has been asked to do any mandatory quarantine. It is an honor system and no one really checks on you. US also allows citizens of Taiwan, Singapore and others not on the CDC watch list to enter the US vs the total ban policy implemented by other countries.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...countries.html

Many arrests in Hawaii for breaking quarantine - many hotels only giving 1 use room keys. Of course, there are quarantine breakers, but the arrests are happening everyday.

Exactly, state and county health departments need to step up their game and put inbound travelers from other states/counties into quarantine, and do checks on randomly selected individuals at random times. If you aren't where you said you'd be, a warrant immediately goes out for your arrest. You don't have to monitor 100% of people under quarantine to get compliance, just check randomly and if you find anyone breaking quarantine, nail those individuals to the wall.

They sure have it figured out in Taiwan! Upon arrival at the airport, you must provide a phone number and show the official your phone to confirm you have received a text they send you. You must then enable GPS tracking on your phone and provide the address where you will quarantine. Then, you have to take a special 'quarantine cab' to your address.

Then, you receive phone calls 2-3 times per day at random times, to confirm that you are actually with your phone at the tracked home location. If you fail to answer a call, police come knocking on your door within 10-15 minutes to confirm you are home and well. This happened to one of my colleagues. He was showering at the time of the call and couldn't answer, and the police were very nice when they came just a few minutes later. But the message was clear. They are serious about this. Not surprisingly, Taiwan has been very effective at managing COVID 19. It has been about two months since the last domestic COVID19 transmission, and life is pretty much normal there.

Unless one tries to take a TPAC anywhere.... it's been 4 months since it made any kind of sense for me to cross that ocean... hoping to get back up there one of these days.

We have seemed to drift away from UA trips to entry / quarantine discussions that better belong in various country destination forums and / or Coronavirus and travel. Let's try to return to discussing travel with UA.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

Have a trip to New Zealand booked for Jan 2021 as my next TPAC. Honestly feel like it’s 50/50 whether entry restrictions will be relaxed by then, but hoping for the best.