Lockdown Diaries: Dressing Up, Free Medicine, Free Rice

A woman dressed up in a qipao (Chinese dress) waits to get covid-tested. Image source.

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)
Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown (March 28)
Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government (March 31)
Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid (April 3)

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We continue to be in lockdown!

Here's the updated timeline:

March 16-21: First lockdown. 6 days.

March 23-now: Second lockdown. 15 days and counting.

Nucleic acid tests (conducted by baymax, ie, the workers in white hazmat suits): 10 times (March 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 28, 30, April 4, 6)

Antigen self-tests: 2 times (April 2 and 3)

(The above info is specific to our apartment complex. Other apartment complexes in Shanghai will have a similar situation but not exactly the same.)

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City-wide covid test on April 4

April 4 was the big day, where all 25 million residents of Shanghai were covid-tested.

20,000 medical staff came to Shanghai from other Chinese cities to help us. (I don't think they all arrived on the same day, I think some probably had already come earlier during this outbreak.) There were a lot of posts on WeChat about it, the general feeling is like "It's great that the other cities are coming to help us, just like Shanghai sent doctors to help Wuhan in 2020. We all help each other. Let's show them our Shanghai hospitality."

Also, on April 4, there was a trend where a lot of people dressed up or wore costumes for the covid test. A lot of really fun pictures on WeChat of people dressed all fancy, waiting in line to be tested.

[sources for the following images are here, here, and here]

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Free medicine

Today everyone in our apartment complex received some medicine for free: 连花清瘟胶囊 (lián huā qīng wēn jiāo náng). This is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat colds and viruses, that sort of thing. In China they use it to treat covid, and they say it works well, though I'm not really sure, because I've googled and I've found some sites saying "yes there are studies that prove this is effective" and some that are just incredibly suspicious of TCM as a concept, implying that it's useless and has no scientific support and there are side-effects you need to watch out for.

I don't really have the time or energy to keep googling and trying to figure out what the actual facts are on this medicine. My feeling for now is "yeah sure I would take it if I had covid."

Anyway, I am just totally baffled on why they are giving this out for free. Our building leader didn't really give any details about it- like are we supposed to take it now as a preventative thing, or only if we are sick, or what? (Seems like the correct answer is only if you're sick- it's not a preventative thing. Based on my googling.) They gave us 2 boxes of medicine per person- including little Square Root, who is a toddler, and I am SURE that this medicine is not approved for children.

Like, what is going on? I am just so confused about this. The past few days, they have been giving this out to people all over Shanghai for free. WHYYYYY

Is it like, in case you test positive, you have medicine you can take right away? But they why couldn't the apartment management just have a stash of it and then only give it out to people who test positive?

It really looks like the sort of thing that a government would do if they are preparing to move away from a "zero covid" strategy, to an "if you have covid, deal with it yourself at home" strategy.

I am just so boggled by this, because the powers-that-be keep saying "yes we are still doing zero-covid." But at the same time, there is talk on the internet/ social media about "it's time to stop doing zero-covid." (I saw somebody on WeChat point out today, it's interesting that those articles remain accessible on the internet and haven't been censored.)

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Update on the policy for children with covid

Last time, I talked about the policy that children who test positive for covid are taken away from their parents to be treated. Well, the past few days, a lot of parents on WeChat have been unhappy about this policy. 

Then a new policy was published: If the child and parent both test positive, then the parent can accompany the child to the quarantine center. But if the child tests positive and the parent tests negative, then they will be separated.

So people on WeChat were like, okay, this is a little bit better, but still not good enough. (And posted things like "if my son tests positive, I will lick his face" like any good parent would.) Also, I heard that the French consulate had a talk with the Shanghai government about it. 

Anyway, then yesterday, a new policy was announced: A parent can accompany the child, regardless of whether the parent is positive or negative. Hooray! There was a news article about the new "parents with children" area of the quarantine center at the World Expo building. It said so far, it has received 89 children along with their parents. 80% of the parents also tested positive, and the others "were made aware of the risks and still agreed to come" even though they were negative. (Feels kind of ridiculous to me, reading the "made aware of the risks" thing, because if it's your kid, of course you wouldn't want them to be alone- even if you risk getting covid.)

So this is good news. :) I wonder if it changed because people were mad about it on the internet, or because the French consulate advocated for us.

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Food

Our food situation is still pretty much the same as last time. The normal grocery apps are not working (with the exception of "if you place your order within a 2-minute window that only occurs once a day, when everyone else is also trying to place their orders, there's a chance yours might get through, outside of that 2-minute window there's no chance" umm okay). The only way we can get food is through group buying with our neighbors, which at least will be delivered reliably, but the problem is there aren't really enough options. It's just the foods that Chinese people see as essential.

And, funny story, our building leader said there was meat available to buy, but didn't say what kind, so we ordered it and then when it was delivered, it turned out to be pig's feet. Which I don't want to eat, and Hendrix doesn't like them or know how to cook them either. So, okay. (Fortunately, the other group-buys we ordered meat from turned out to be more "normal" meat that we like. So we have plenty of non-pig-feet meat.)

In the international WeChat groups, I have seen several conversations like "my friend who lives in [wherever] has no food, can anyone help?" and then people reply to say "they have to talk to their neighbors and get in on the group buying." But the problem is the person in question doesn't speak Chinese, or maybe they did get food from the group buys but half of it they didn't know how to cook, so it goes to waste. I feel like this is a big problem for international people who can't cook Chinese food, and who don't live near enough other international people to do a group buy of, say, pasta.

I'm lucky that my husband is Chinese and good at cooking Chinese food.

Also, another update about food: We got more free food from the government. So far, we've gotten free veggies from the government twice, also Spam and noodles, and today we got a big bag of rice for free. So I'm happy about that- actually now we have way too many vegetables.

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Quarantine conditions

On WeChat, I've seen some photos and videos shared of the quarantine places that covid-positive people are sent to. Some of them seem okay, like the World Expo center- there are no showers, and they keep the lights on all the time, so that's not great, but at least it looks clean and organized (or rather, this is the impression I get from the government-approved news sources, so take it with a grain of salt).

But also I saw a video from a guy who was told he had to sleep outside because they didn't have anywhere for him to go. And I saw a post about people who were sent to a quarantine place, and for a whole night they weren't even given any water or food or anything. You have to be careful with social media- can't just believe everything you read- but those ones I believe because they had photos and videos. And so I'm mad about that- how could they send people to a quarantine center that didn't even have resources like water for them to drink?

They should let covid-positive people just stay at home if there's no room in the quarantine center for them. That's what's happening anyway- after you test positive, typically you have to wait 1-2 days for the ambulance to come pick you up and take you to the quarantine center. Why not just let those people wait even longer at home, until you can confirm you really do have a place that can accept them?

So yeah, be mad about that, demand better.

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Some overall opinions

At this point, people are saying Shanghai's outbreak is bigger than Wuhan's was. (Wuhan's was about 50,000 cases.) I can't find a statistic that really shows this directly, because Shanghai doesn't include the "asymptomatic" cases in the official count, and something like 90% of the cases in Shanghai have been "asymptomatic". (Though I have recently learned that when Shanghai says "asymptomatic" they mean "doesn't have pneumonia symptoms, but could still have other symptoms" which is apparently different from how other Chinese cities have defined it, also feels very dishonest/misleading... so what's the deal with that?) 

Anyway, it makes me worried, what if they really can't turn this around and get us back to zero cases? Can they really find every single person who has covid, in the entire city of Shanghai? But if it doesn't go to zero, the only other option is it spreads out of control, and I would be scared to live in a society like that. I am not worried about me personally getting very sick from covid, but about living in a society where the medical system is overwhelmed, or where I have to worry about if I can send my son to daycare or not, or having to work from home for months and months and months.

There is talk about China maybe transitioning away from zero-covid, but in my opinion, we are not ready. 

Personally, I am fine staying in lockdown for a while. I can manage. But I'm worried about the treatment of covid-positive people, and I'm worried about how hard all the medical workers and delivery drivers and neighborhood volunteers have to work. I'm fine, but the people on the front lines of this are having a much worse time than me.

That's all ~ 上海加油！

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Next post: Lockdown Diaries: I am Okay, Shanghai is Not

WTF, CNN?

Screenshot of the article in question.

Oh wow, you guys, look at this headline from CNN: A Covid-19 spike like the one in China is unlikely in the US, experts say. Here's why (March 31)

This article was just so OVER-THE-TOP with the anti-China bias, completely misrepresenting the situation, I just have to respond to it.

Like, that headline. Just, take a minute and marvel at how bad that headline is. "A Covid-19 spike like the one in China is unlikely in the US." It makes it sound like China is doing worse than the US in terms of how many people are getting infected and how many are dying. Makes it sound like, oh don't worry, things are way bad in China now, but the US won't be like that, thank goodness.

... I just. What on earth.

The whole article is about how China's and the US's strategies to fight the pandemic have been very different, and at this point, the number of cases in China is going up, while the number in the US is going down. Yes, this is true. Going up vs going down. I agree that those are different things. But that does NOT mean that the pandemic is worse in China than in the US.

Yes, it's true that zero-covid policies have kept the population in China from being exposed to covid at all, so we don't have immunity from being infected, and so if zero-covid ends, covid would spread very fast and be a disaster. Sort of like, EXACTLY WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON IN THE US since early 2020. My God. The US has already had covid spikes worse than what China has. That's just seen as normal life in the US I guess. Whereas in China it's news.

Ugh, I mean, I am tired of blogging about this all the time now, but here we are, the CNN article was THAT BAD.

Let me show you a few graphs:

Okay, a quick google search for "china covid statistics" shows us this graph of covid cases in China from January 2020 until now:

And "usa covid statistics" shows this graph for the US, March 2020 until now:

Oh look, indeed, what a large spike on the China graph. And the US graph seems fine, going down even.

Maybe if you don't know how to read a graph, or understand what numbers are, you would think that the China one is worse than the US one.

Look at the axes though, seriously. China's y-axis is 5,000, 10,000, 15,000. The US graph goes up to a million. A million! This thing is 60 times taller than the China graph. SIXTY TIMES TALLER.

Here, I don't get paid enough for this nonsense, but let me graph them together on the same axis:

USA in blue, China in red.

So hey, DON'T WORRY, THE US IS NOT GOING TO HAVE A SPIKE LIKE CHINA what the hell.

And another thing: To a naive observer, it might look like China's lockdowns are so strict because the covid case numbers are so bad. But it's the other way around: Because our lockdowns are so strict, the covid case numbers are not bad. 

AND ANOTHER THING: The numbers for the US are an undercount. Because, from what I've heard, in the US now if you get covid you just deal with it yourself and don't really report it to anyone. People like to play the "I don't believe China's numbers" game, well I believe China's numbers but not the United States' numbers.

Ugh, that's the whole post, the numbers speak for themselves. Very mad at this CNN article for being so bad that I have to spend my time IN LOCKDOWN blogging about it.

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Related:

Wow, the Anti-China Bias in Western News Media

I Don't Know Anyone in China Who Has Had Covid

Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid

See also: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic (June 14, 2024)

Blogaround

1. Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Long Pause Explained Racism and Sexism in America (posted March 24) "Everybody knew that Ted Cruz got to stand up there and call Ketanji Brown Jackson whatever he wanted to, and nobody would stop him. Everybody knew that Jackson could not respond in kind if she wanted the job. And everybody knew that, in the same situation, Kavanaugh could and did sneer at his questioners, threaten the Senate with political retribution, and declare his undying love for beer, without hurting his chances at unaccountable lifetime power."

2. Harm Reduction: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (posted March 28) "But advocates say that much, much more is needed, including making sure that people who use drugs have a seat at the table during policy discussions, and that funding gets to community-based organizations providing the services for them."

3. ‘I Found It!’ (posted March 22) "Those memories of billboards, buttons, and bumper stickers came flooding back when I read this Christianity Today piece by Maria Baer last week: '$100M Ad Campaign Aims to Make Jesus the ‘Biggest Brand in Your City’.'"

4. As the Emmett Till Antilynching Act becomes law, we owe a debt to the mother who never let us forget (posted March 9)

5. 7 Things White Christians Can Do to Address White Supremacy at Church (posted March 20) "Pull together a group to write a more honest church history that begins with this simple question: Why is our church physically located where it is? Why is it in this part of our community and not another one? In nearly all cases this question will quickly lead to issues of racially segregated neighborhoods, white flight from cities to suburbs and land grabs from Native Americans, to name just a few. And other questions will flow from this beginning: Has the church ever had a policy or practice of prohibiting non-white members? Where was the voice of the church during past and present movements for civil rights? How different would a history of your church be if it were written by non-white members of your community?"

6. The Redemption of Redeeming Love: A Movie Review and Marketplace History (posted March 24) "But without fail, every time a new film adaptation is released, reviewers are once again shocked with the popularity of Christian fiction romance."

7. Madison Cawthorn Allegedly Overwhelmed By Washington Cocaine And Orgy Invites (posted March 28) Uh okay.

8. Twitter suspends Babylon Bee for naming Rachel Levine ‘Man of the Year’ (posted March 21) The Babylon Bee is trash.

Jesus: “Show me your funniest joke.”

Babylon Bee: "I have no funniest joke."

Jesus: "You are right in saying, ‘I have no funniest joke,' for you only have one joke, and the one you have is not funny."

— J.R.R. Jokin (@joshcarlosjosh) March 23, 2022

9. Another negative positive (posted March 30) "The previous time my wife tested positive I was sent home from the Big Box, told to get tested, and not permitted to return until 24 hours after a negative test result. This time they’re just, like, 'But you didn’t test positive right? So why aren’t you coming in? And why are you still wearing a mask like some weirdo?'"

(Meanwhile in Shanghai, I have been in lockdown for about 3 weeks because of the covid outbreak...)

10. Autistic Sensory Pain and the Medical Consequences (posted 2021) "If autistic people are constantly told that their sensory pain 'isn’t a big deal,' why would we assume you would take our physical pain seriously?" I am autistic, and all of this rings very true.

Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid

Part of a rapid antigen self-test kit for covid. Image source.

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)
Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown (March 28)
Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government (March 31)

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Lockdown continues here in Shanghai!

Okay, first the overview and timeline:

March 16-21: First lockdown. 6 days.

March 23-now: Second lockdown. 12 days and counting.

Nucleic acid tests (conducted by baymax, ie, the workers in white hazmat suits): 8 times (March 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 28, 30)

Antigen self-tests: 2 times (April 2 and 3)

The above info is specific to our apartment complex. Other apartment complexes in Shanghai will have a similar situation but not exactly the same.

Also, we are in Pudong (the east half of Shanghai). This is important information because Pudong and Puxi (the west half) and being locked down separately.

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Pudong is NOT open

As you may remember from my March 28 post: It was announced on March 27 that Pudong (the east half of Shanghai) would be entirely locked down from March 28 to early morning April 1, and Puxi (the west half of Shanghai) would be locked down from April 1 to 5.

A few days later, a covid case was discovered in our complex, which meant our complex would have 14 more days of lockdown anyway- I knew we weren't getting out on April 1, regardless of what happened in the rest of Pudong.

Anyway, on March 31, the city of Shanghai published new guidelines for Pudong. It said that there would be 3 categories of complexes, and different rules for each one:

1. Locked down area: This means a complex that has positive covid cases. The building with the positive case will be locked down for 14 days (starting from March 28)- you can't leave the building at all. And the other buildings in the complex will be 7+7: this means 7 days you can't leave your building, and then 7 days you can at least walk around outside but can't leave the complex.
2. Controlled area: This means a complex that did not have any positive covid cases, but it's in the same neighborhood (not sure how to translate this word?) as a complex that has a positive case. In this category, you can't leave your complex for 7 days.
3. Precautionary area: This means there were no covid cases in the complex or in the whole neighborhood. Congrats, you are free! (But with all the normal advice about "Wear a mask! Don't go anywhere crowded!")

So we are in the first category.

Here's the weird thing, though: Is ANYBODY in category 3? Seems like... no? I have seen this discussed in a lot of WeChat groups the past few days, and I haven't heard of anyone who is like "yeah we are in Pudong, and on April 1 our lockdown ended."

I heard a joke about it in Chinese, let me tell it to you in English: 

Pudong is unlocked, except for 12 streets and 24 towns.

How many streets and towns are there in Pudong?

12 streets and 24 towns.

So... okay then.

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Antigen self-test kits

I mentioned the antigen self-test kits last week (on March 26, Shanghai distributed 14 million of them and had people test themselves this way, but we were not in those 14 million).

Well, exciting (?) update: On April 2, our apartment complex got the self-test kits, and we all had to test ourselves for covid at home. And again on April 3. The building volunteers asked everyone to post a photo in the group chat, to show the negative result. (Yes, our entire building tested negative both days.)

Yeah people could totally lie about this (ie, they test positive but claim it was negative) but you will definitely get arrested for that.

The self-test kits are basically the same as what other countries have been using for a long time, but were only recently approved by the Chinese government for use here. It's a nose swab, then you swish it around in a test tube for 1 minute, then drip several drops onto the testing strip, and see if you get 1 line or 2 (1 line means negative, 2 lines means positive).

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Groceries

So last time I said getting groceries is a huge problem because most of the grocery apps we normally use are just impossible to place orders on. (Apparently some people have had success with setting their alarm for 5:50 am and placing the order exactly at 6:00, okay, sure, so not 100% impossible, but pretty much.)

So instead, neighbors have been getting together to buy things in bulk. There are grocery stores that can't deliver individual orders, but if you get a huge group of people from the same complex all ordering things together, then you can get them. And now a few apps have sprung up for this purpose.

Unfortunately there is not much of a selection- it's things that Chinese people see as the most essential foods, and that's it. Meat, rice, vegetables, oil, milk, fresh fruit, noodles... So, we are going to run out of Cheerios. And bread. And diapers. I can't find a group buy for those things... We ran out of pasta about a week ago...

But the good news is, a bunch of the group buy things have been delivered! Now we have plenty of food, even though we're missing some key things like pasta.

Also, Hendrix's employer had a grocery box available for only 20 kuai (about 4 dollars), so we ordered that, they shipped it to us, it arrived successfully, and it's a bunch of vegetables and A WHOLE CHICKEN like with the head and everything. My employer is also sending grocery boxes, for free, but mine hasn't arrived yet. A lot of companies have been doing this- finding a grocery shipping service to send food to their employees in lockdown.

Also, remember last time, we got some free groceries from the government, but I said it wasn't that great because it was just vegetables? Well, today we got free noodles and cans of Spam from the government, so ... yay? Yes, we will eat them. That's good.

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Children who test positive for covid

[UPDATE: Good news, the policy about separating children from parents has been changed- see my April 6 post]

Yesterday (April 2) there were some posts going around on social media, showing babies (probably all under 2 years old) who had tested positive for covid and were in a hospital, 3 or 4 babies all in one hospital crib... The post said there were 200 children and only 10 nurses to take care of them, and many of them have red butts because their diapers are not being changed.

Like, we don't really know how true it is, because you don't really know the source of the things you read on social media, but I know it is true that China's policy is to separate children from their parents when children test positive for covid.

Later that day, the government put out a statement that those photos just show the children being moved from one area of the hospital to another- it's not like they're all packed into hospital beds like that all the time.

Uh...

Like, I am VERY SKEPTICAL.

The government is like, everything is fine, nothing to see here!

Yes, I am sure that there are things going on in the hospitals with positive covid patients that they don't want us to see, and they will censor if it gets onto the internet. We all know that in China, things get censored on the internet- sometimes you read a post, and then you come back to find it again later, and it's mysteriously gone. I suspect- this is just my opinion though- that these photos of the babies yesterday got shared widely enough that they couldn't just censor it, they had to issue a statement about how it's not what it looks like or whatever.

Misinformation about covid spreads very fast on social media, and the government has again and again told people not to believe rumors- on March 23, Shanghai announced that they were investigating two people who had started a rumor that the whole city would be shut down. (That's kind of, umm, interesting now that the entire city is shut down, except for some hypothetical places in Pudong that are classified as "precautionary areas" and may or may not actually exist.)

So yeah, the Chinese government censors things, claiming that it's just trying to stop the spread of rumors and misinformation. To some extent that could be a reasonable thing to do, but there are definitely lots of times that stuff gets censored just because it makes them look bad- and people should know the truth. I'm glad we have social media now, because then we can find out about news that definitely would be censored from any official news source. At the same time, though, you shouldn't believe everything you read on social media...

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And now some opinions:

It seems like the quarantine facilities they've set up for covid-positive patients in Shanghai have been overwhelmed and don't have enough resources for everyone who has tested positive. (It's something like 5000 new cases per day.) There is talk (from official government sources) of letting asymptomatic people quarantine at home- but it's just a suggestion so far, we don't know if that will become the actual policy. I guess that would be better- as long as we can be certain they won't accidently infect their neighbors.

It's... it's not good, a lot of the stuff that is happening. The problems with getting groceries, the conditions in the quarantine centers, the policy of separating children from their parents. But I still want to say, overall the "lockdown and mass testing" zero-covid strategy is right. The alternative is thousands of people dying of covid.

Because of covid, here's how the world works now: You can either live in a society where the government has the power to force you into a lockdown at any time, or you can live in a society where thousands of people die of covid and it overwhelms the medical system. I don't think there are any other types of societies in the world... Well, I'm mostly thinking about China and the US- perhaps there are other countries that have done a good job handling the pandemic while also preserving all the human rights that we should have...?

But, I want to say this: In the areas where the Shanghai government is not doing a good job, we absolutely should bring those problems to light. I think I've mentioned before on my blog, I have this feeling like I shouldn't criticize anything at all about China's handling of the pandemic, because the alternative is to do what the US did, and we obviously don't want that. No, that's not true. The Shanghai government doesn't allow grocery stores to open- yes, let's criticize that. They should have done better. The policy about separating children from their parents- I know it's because of limited resources, but let's be honest about the problems that it causes, and the trauma that it does to the children.

And actually, there is a complaint hotline you can call if your local apartment management people are trying to put more restrictions on you than what the city government said. I think it's easy for people in other countries to assume "well you're in China, you don't have any rights" but actually the city government sets the policies, and if the lower-level local governments are not acting according to those policies, there are ways you can report them and get them in trouble. Things like putting a physical lock on your apartment door, or not letting people get medical treatment during lockdown- these are illegal and I hope the city government would intervene if that was happening. I don't have any actual experience with the complaint hotline, though, so can't really tell you how effective it is.

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Tomorrow (April 4), they will be doing nucleic-acid testing on the entire population of Shanghai. Apparently we have to get up early for that. Anyway, I will post more updates in a few days.

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Follow-up post: Lockdown Diaries: Dressing Up, Free Medicine, Free Rice

Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government

An example of the free groceries someone got in Shanghai. Yeah ours are definitely not as good as these. Image source. (This link has a lot of photos, you can see the whole range of quality of the goodie bags, for different parts of Shanghai.)

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)
Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown (March 28)

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Many fun updates from me!

First, the timeline:

March 16-21: first lockdown. 6 days.

March 23- now (March 31): second lockdown. 9 days and counting.

Got covid-tested by the pandemic workers in white hazmat suits 8 times. (March 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 28, 30)

The above stats are specific to our apartment complex. Everywhere else in Shanghai has a similar story but the dates and numbers won't be exactly the same.

Starting March 28, all of Pudong (the east half of Shanghai) is in lockdown. It was planned to end on April 1, but I am skeptical. And the west half, Puxi, will be in lockdown starting on April 1. (Though obviously many places in Puxi are already in lockdown, if they've been judged to have a risk of having covid cases there.)

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Emma Leaning shows us what happens if you test positive:

Emma Leaning is a British woman living in Shanghai. She and her husband Shane Leaning recently tested positive and posted their experiences on Twitter. Shane was sent to a hospital, and Emma was sent to the quarantine center at the World Expo. (They were separated because initially Emma tested negative- she later tested positive and that's when she was sent to the World Expo quarantine center.) Please do go read their Twitter threads to see what conditions are like there:

Thread from Shane:

So, it’s happened. I got #COVID in #Shanghai. Waiting for CDC now to take me to hospital and @LeaningEmma to central quarantine- our life for the next three weeks ☹️

— Shane Leaning (@leaningshane) March 23, 2022

Thread from Emma:

Just found out @leaningshane has #COVID19. Both packing while waiting for the CDC to arrive. He’ll go to hospital and I’ll be taken to quarantine. We’re OK, but not looking forward to the next three weeks. #Shanghai pic.twitter.com/r18ibGDkQS

— Emma Leaning (@LeaningEmma) March 23, 2022

In particular, this video about Emma's experience at the quarantine center is worth watching:

A video detailing #Shanghai's staggered lockdown, without Western media spin. I also chat with my colleague @LeaningEmma, who is currently under central quarantine at the city's World Expo site with #COVID. pic.twitter.com/5fO1Se7pC3

— Andy Boreham 安柏然 (@AndyBxxx) March 28, 2022

Basically you can see that the quarantine facilities for covid-positive patients are not that great, just kind of bare-minimum, a lot of beds, no showers, hope you brought your own toilet paper.

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Covid case in our apartment complex:

So we found out that somebody in our apartment complex tested positive. Here's what that means:

Person who tested positive: They get taken in an ambulance to the quarantine center. Actually, they first quarantined at home for 2 days, because there wasn't space at the quarantine center, and then the ambulance came and got them.

People who live in the same building as the covid-positive person: They have to all quarantine at home for 14 days. Not allowed to leave the building. Whether or not they can go down to the first floor to throw away trash or pick up deliveries is up to the apartment management. If the apartment management is not even allowing them to come out of their homes at all, then the apartment management has to send people to each household to pick up their garbage and drop off deliveries. Also, they have to get covid-tested several times during those 14 days.

People who live in the same apartment complex: They have to all quarantine at home for 14 days. Whether or not they can at least walk around outside is up to the apartment management, but definitely can't leave the apartment complex. Also, have to get covid-tested several times during those 14 days.

So I fall into the "same apartment complex but not the same building" category. Even though Pudong's lockdown is (supposedly) ending on April 1 (and we are in Pudong), our apartment complex will not be opening.

I feel bad for the covid-positive person- apparently they went grocery shopping on March 22, and that must be where they were infected. It's not their fault. And now they probably feel like everyone in our complex is judging them.

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Groceries:

Okay, this is a PROBLEM. Before March 28 (when all of Pudong went into lockdown), it was tough to place orders on grocery delivery apps, but I managed to successfully get food delivered about every 2-3 days. But on March 28, that all changed, and now it's virtually impossible. Yes, for 4 days, I have tried several times a day, checking several different apps, and none of them allow me to place orders for groceries. (Either the store is closed, or they have too many orders already, or they say they can't deliver to this address.) 

(Weirdly, though, I ordered cat litter from a pet store and it was delivered half an hour later, no problem. So apparently pet stores are not having the same overwhelming demand that grocery stores are...)

I have seen a lot of tips shared on WeChat about "for Dingdong Maicai, you have to set your alarm for 5:50 am, and place your order at exactly 6" like what the little tricks are for each platform.  I have tried those tips, and still failed.

So the volunteers in our apartment complex are helping us all get very basic groceries. Like, very basic. They post in the group chat "there are bags of vegetables for 30 kuai" and we can reply to say if we want that. You don't have options, it's just whatever random vegetables are in the bag. They get delivered about 2 days later.

Also, the government has been distributing a free bag of groceries to each household. This is organized by the local government, so you get totally different stuff depending on what part of Shanghai you live in. People have been posting photos of their free groceries on WeChat- it's always a bunch of fresh vegetables, and sometimes meat like pork or chicken, sometimes tofu, sometimes a carton of milk, sometimes some fresh fruit, sometimes noodles. There is a lot of variation in how good these goodie bags are, and everyone is very excited to compare on WeChat.

We got ours today, and it's just vegetables. Cauliflower, mushrooms, and a few other things. So, kind of disappointed about that. Like, yes, we very much need the fresh vegetables, but... other people elsewhere in Shanghai got meat...

Now people have started getting together with their neighbors to buy things in bulk. Somebody has a contact at a grocery store who can get us eggs, but only if we buy 300 cartons of them, and so they are making a sign-up list for people in our apartment complex to buy them.

So it looks like that's how we'll be getting groceries for the foreseeable future. Which is okay, we'll survive, but we don't have much choice, and definitely can't get anything that Chinese people don't consider a staple. For example, we're out of pasta.

Honestly, this grocery situation is not okay. How has the city of Shanghai failed so badly at making sure grocery stores in Pudong could stay open and accessible during the lockdown?

To give another example: Epermarket is a grocery store that markets toward international people in China. On March 28, the first day of the Pudong lockdown, they posted an update on WeChat to say they are not able to cross the river from Puxi to Pudong, and so they aren't able to deliver in Pudong that day. It took a few days, but eventually they did deliver those things in Pudong. I don't understand this- why was there uncertainty about a grocery service being allowed to enter Pudong during lockdown? Why did it take 2-3 days to get this resolved? Why was it not obvious to everyone that a grocery store is an essential business and therefore shouldn't be restricted like that? If there were hoops they had to jump through- like maybe covid-testing all their employees, or disinfecting their store- why was that not done immediately when the lockdown was announced?

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Pets:

Apparently the official announcement about the Pudong lockdown said people are not allowed to go outside at all. This is kind of open to interpretation- obviously you can't leave your apartment complex (the gates are blocked), but some complexes are more relaxed about it, and they say if you need to go outside, just go real quick and come back. Like if you need to pick up a delivery or take out the trash or whatever. (Our complex is relaxed like this.)

But some complexes are not allowing people to go outside at all. So, people ask, how will we walk our dogs? Some complexes are not even allowing people to walk their dogs- the dog owners have to set up fake grass inside their home and try to convince their dog to pee on it. That's completely ridiculous. (There are also some middle-ground apartment complexes, where a volunteer will walk your dog, but you still can't go outside.)

And also, there is worry about what will happen to your pets if you test positive. Basically, you have to find someone to come get your pets and take them out of your home, before you go to central quarantine. We have heard about situations in other cities in China where pandemic workers killed pets. So... right, seems like the policy in Shanghai is that you can let someone else come get your pets, and that you should communicate with the apartment management about it, no need to sneak around. (Emma Leaning mentioned in her Twitter thread that she was able to hand off her 2 dogs to someone before going to quarantine- her dogs are safe.) The issue is what if your apartment management is being jerks and doesn't want to help you? Which is apparently happening- I have seen WeChat posts of people who tested positive and are desperately looking for someone to come get their pets. And I've seen vets and pet boarding services posting information about what to do, and about how to get connected with other pet owners who can help you.

Yeah, this is ****ed up. The Shanghai government should have a clear policy about this, so there is a place for the pets to go and no one has to worry that the pets will be killed, wtf.

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Perfect Number is Very Disappointed in Shanghai's Management:

Yeah, I'm shocked. Mostly about the lack of access to groceries. How is Shanghai this bad at it? It's been 4 days, and I haven't been able to get any groceries delivered, except for the very basic ones that our apartment volunteers got for us.

Shanghai is a world-class, modern, international city, with very good infrastructure, very efficient and convenient. I thought, we're not like those smaller Chinese cities, we won't have the logistical problems they've had during their lockdowns. I'm really shocked at this. Seriously, why am I not able to order groceries, from ANYWHERE? (Except our nice building leaders, who bring bags of random vegetables.) That's... how???

It is nice to see neighbors coming together to help each other. It's nice to see so many people volunteering, and all the pandemic workers working so hard. People everywhere in the world are like that- when there is a need, people will step up and help. So that's good. We're going to get through this. But look at me, I'm kind of changing my tune a little, I've always been so confident about how Shanghai does things, but now they are failing.

I am hoping that, even though we will still be in lockdown for a while, some places in Pudong will open on April 1, and that will make it easier for me to order groceries. We will see.

Good night everyone ~ I will post more updates as they happen.

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Follow-up post: Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid

Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown

A pot for cooking hot pot, with a barrier in the middle to divide the two different kinds of soup. One side is labelled "浦西" (Puxi) and the other is "浦东" (Pudong). Source: WeChat.

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)

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Well I am exhausted from working from home, taking care of a toddler, cooking, and laundry. My husband is doing half the work but wowwww this is just exhausting. Lockdown life.

Anyway, I have to post this update: So last night, the city of Shanghai announced that Pudong will be totally locked down from March 28 to April 1 (lockdown ends at 5 am on April 1), and then Puxi will be in lockdown from April 1 to April 5. Pudong is the half of Shanghai east of the Huangpu River, and Puxi is the half of Shanghai west of the Huangpu River.

I live in Pudong, by the way.

This is a huge big deal. It was announced around 8:30 pm last night (March 27), and suddenly everyone in Pudong (11 million people) realized they only had a few hours to prepare. I saw several videos on WeChat (Chinese social media app) of people crowding into the grocery stores and buying all the food, even fighting over the vegetables. Obviously I was not there, because I am already in lockdown- as I've covered in my previous blog posts, my apartment complex has been in lockdown since March 23, so that's 6 days so far (which is actually the second lockdown- the first we had was March 16-21). The lockdowns I've blogged about these past few weeks have been like, neighborhood-level, but now it's all of Pudong locked down at the same time.

It's... a bit weird that they're doing it one half of the city at a time. Some people are saying "Why don't they just shut down all of Shanghai at the same time? We would be able to get rid of this covid outbreak faster that way." During the past few weeks, though, the government of Shanghai has said several times that they're not shutting down the entire city- so maybe now they feel like they can't, because they said they wouldn't. I don't know. Shanghai has something like 25 million people- doing a lockdown for a city that big is a huge task; maybe it makes sense to do one half at a time.

Lots of memes going around on WeChat last night. People making jokes like "We are not shutting down the whole city! We are only shutting down 2 areas: Pudong and Puxi." (I'll explain the joke: Pudong + Puxi is the whole city of Shanghai.)

Someone else noticed that the Puxi lockdown starts at 3 am on April 1, and the Pudong lockdown ends at 5 am on April 1, so they said here's what you do if you want to avoid lockdown- you start in Puxi, then jump into the Huangpu River at 3 am, then swim around for 2 hours, and get out on the Pudong side at 5 am.

And also memes with a picture of a pot at a hot pot restaurant- the pot has 2 sections, with different soup in each side, and the sides are labelled "Puxi" and "Pudong." 

Personally I find all of those jokes hilarious. :D

Anyway let me give you a little background about Pudong and Puxi. I live in Pudong now, but I have lived in Puxi in the past. I work in Puxi- so yeah, 5 days a week, I take the subway and it crosses under the river, from Pudong to Puxi. (Obviously I don't do that now that I've been working from home for 2 weeks.) A lot of people live in one half and work in the other half. It's not unusual at all. It's not hard to go from Pudong to Puxi- seriously, take a look at the Shanghai subway map:

Okay this one is not even totally up-to-date because it's missing line 14 and half of line 18, but you get the idea. Image source.

See the river going through there? That's the line between Puxi (west) and Pudong (east). So most of the main downtown area is in Puxi, but it's not like Pudong is far away in the middle of nowhere or anything. (However, most of my friends live in Puxi, and there are always jokes about how "your friends move to Pudong and then you never see them again because it's SO FAR AWAY" and "I have to leave early because I LIVE IN PUDONG and it takes an hour to get home" etc.)

Actually, let me give you a rundown of the posts I've made with photos I've taken around Shanghai, and which ones are Puxi and which ones are Pudong:

Puxi:
Lego Store at People's Square
Starbucks Reserve Roastery
Hongqiao Train Station
Shanghai Botanical Garden
Yuyuan Garden
Natural History Museum
Sheshan

Pudong:
Line 14 (is in both Puxi and Pudong but my photos are all in the Pudong part)
"Jurassic World" Exhibition 
Disney Store at Lujiazui 
Line 6 and Line 2 (Line 6 is entirely in Pudong, Line 2 is in both, but my photos are all in the Pudong part)
Disneyland

(Wowwww I told myself "I'll just write a quick blog post and then go to bed" and here I am scrolling back through my "travel" blog posts all the way back to 2016...)

Okay but now you get the idea about Pudong and Puxi. Two halves of the city, kind of each have their own personality, but really not separate at all- people are crossing back and forth on subways, bridges, tunnels, and ferries ALL THE TIME. Except now, because we are in a lockdown that separates the two halves.

So. Uh. Where was I... So last night, it kind of felt like, suddenly things are getting worse. This is kind of the first time I've felt like a lot of people in Shanghai are mad about the lockdowns. Seeing the videos of people panic-buying all the vegetables... it's not good.

I do feel like the government and the pandemic control people in Shanghai have been doing a good job, given the circumstances, but... this kind of lockdown is just not good. In a city of 25 million people, you suddenly create this much of a disruption to everyone's lives, and inevitably there must be people who aren't able to get food, or medicine, or medical care. (Yes, there are systems set up to help with that, but it's all thrown together so fast, inevitably it won't work 100% of the time.) And a lot of people who aren't getting paid because they're not able to work- yes, to some extent the government requires companies to keep paying their employees anyway, but that doesn't even necessarily apply to all jobs.

At this point, I still believe letting omicron run around everywhere unchecked would be worse than these lockdowns... But a lockdown is still not a good thing. Not anywhere near as bad as everyone getting covid, getting into the kind of situation Hong Kong is having right now... but still bad. And it seems like China is kind of starting to think about "we have to transition into a different strategy than zero-covid, but without having tons of people die..." I don't know what will happen... But yeah, the more "zero-covid" we are here, the more impossible it is for me to see my family...

Anyway... Today on WeChat I see all the restaurants and grocery stores making posts like "We are still able to deliver to Puxi, but if you ordered and you live in Pudong, we will have to cancel your order because the delivery drivers aren't able to cross the river" or "All of our employees are in lockdown, we are in the process of working with the government to find out if we're allowed to open or not."

Oh also, another fun update: Today (March 28) we got covid-tested. Also, March 26 we got covid-tested. So, woo, new record I guess, now the total is 7 times that our entire apartment complex has been tested in these mass testing initiatives. I am really really really sure I don't have covid.

Oh, and on March 26, Shanghai distributed some 14 million antigen home tests (ie, test yourself for covid at home). Our apartment complex didn't get them because we are in lockdown and getting tested by the 大白 (dà bái)- this literally translates to "big white" and it's the slang term for the pandemic control workers in white hazmat suits. (Also, Baymax from the movie "Big Hero 6" is called 大白 (dà bái) in Chinese but I don't think that's related? Gives me a laugh, though, to imagine the quarantine workers are a bunch of Baymaxes.) Anyway, on March 26 I saw lots of people posting on WeChat about their self-tests. Very excited to share a picture of what you shoved up your nose, I guess? Apparently if it's positive, you're legally required to report it. 

(If it's negative, you're legally required to share it on social media LOLLLLL just joking, wow I kind of feel like I am way too tired to be blogging because this made me laugh so much.)

To be honest though, I don't really get where self-tests fit into China's anti-covid strategy. Kind of seems like it's signaling a change in the strategy. Because, up till now, if there's actually a possibility you might have covid, you need to be tested by an actual professional and definitely put in a government-designated quarantine facility if you're positive... and if there's not really a possibility you have covid, then the reason you're getting tested must be because an airline requires it or whatever, so still you need a professional to do it and give you the right documentation.

Aiiiiiiiii all right there you have it, Perfect Number is really too tired to be writing a whole long blog post tonight, but here we are. Will post more updates as they come. Pudong's lockdown ends at 5 am on April 1, but that doesn't necessarily mean our specific apartment complex will end lockdown then... 

Oh, and I guess I should reassure you all, I'm fine, my husband and son are fine, we are doing okay in lockdown and are lucky that our situation isn't as bad as some of the other things we've heard in Shanghai.

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Shanghai to lock down each half of city for mass Covid-19 testing (March 27) This article from CNN gives a good description of how things are here, but I just found it super super weird that the article never actually uses the words "Pudong" and "Puxi." It says "The eastern half of the city -- comprising around 11 million residents"- umm, this is Pudong. It's... It's not like it's a complicated word that you can only understand if you speak Chinese... It's literally the name of the geographical area that is now in lockdown. Seems like they could have said "The Pudong region, which is the eastern half of the city -- comprising around 11 million residents". Is it normal that news articles about the goings-on in foreign countries don't actually use the words that the people living there would use? Like of course I don't expect you to know what Pudong is if you don't live in Shanghai, but it doesn't really feel like they're reporting the news accurately if they don't say the word "Pudong" when the news is "Pudong is in lockdown." I don't know, maybe just my opinion...

China doesn't have a Covid exit plan. Two years in, people are fed up and angry (March 25) Also from CNN. I mean, yeah, this is all true, but that doesn't mean things are going to change. 

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Follow-up post: Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government

I'm in Lockdown Again

In Shanghai, pandemic workers in white hazmat suits receive a food delivery. Image source.

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)

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Okay, so.

I mean, it's really not that exciting. Lockdown is just, the same tediousness of being stuck at home and trying to get work done on my computer while my son fusses because he wanted to watch a *different* dinosaur video than the one he is watching. And cooking our own food, and worrying about if we can get groceries delivered or not.

But anyway, this is a big news story, the covid outbreak in Shanghai, so I have a duty to tell you readers all about it.

Okay basic timeline of our apartment complex's lockdowns:

(Definition of "lockdown": we're not allowed to leave our apartment complex. We can walk around outside, but the gates of the complex are blocked. We can still get things delivered- there is a shelf at the main gate where deliveries get dropped off, then we have to walk over there and get them. There are some specific exceptions, reasons that you can get out of lockdown, like if you're an essential worker or you need medical treatment, that sort of thing.)

Wednesday, March 16: Our first lockdown starts. We are told it will be 48 hours. Everyone in the apartment complex is required to get covid-tested.

Thursday, March 17: We all (entire apartment complex) get covid-tested a second time.

Friday, March 18: We thought the lockdown was going to end, but it didn't, because the apartment management hadn't gotten the official notice from the government that they were allowed to open the doors. Instead, on Friday night there's an official notice that we are doing another 48-hour lockdown and we have to get covid-tested two more times.

Saturday, March 19: We all get covid-tested.

Sunday, March 20: We all get covid-tested.

Monday, March 21: Finally, in the evening, they announce that our lockdown has ended. HOORAY everyone is excited. (The lockdown lasted 6 days.)

Tuesday, March 22: Yay no lockdown! We ordered food from a restaurant and it was delivered right to our door instead of the apartment complex gate. We (me, my husband, and son) didn't go out anywhere that day, but hey, we COULD HAVE.

Wednesday, March 23: In the morning, we are notified that we are in lockdown again. No idea how long this one will be. We all get covid-tested. (Fun math fact: Our whole apartment complex has been covid-tested 5 times. As far as I know, the results are all negative.)

Thursday, March 24: Still in lockdown. 

Friday, March 25 (today): Yep still in lockdown. (This second lockdown has lasted 3 days so far, don't know when it will end.)

So overall: 6 days of lockdown, then 1 day of being allowed out, then 3 days of lockdown. 5 covid tests.

This is the situation in the apartment complex where I live. The rest of Shanghai has similar scenarios, though the exact numbers (how many days of lockdown, how many rounds of mass testing) will be different.

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Groceries:

Lol, remember last week when I was complaining because my grocery delivery was supposed to come at 11:45 but instead it came at 2:45? Man, I WISH I could order stuff on an app and have it come 3 hours later than expected. Now I can barely get anything to come.

There are a bunch of different apps I use that can deliver groceries, and it's like this: Oh, can't order from this store because it's closed. Oh, this one says it can't ship anything to our address. Oh, for this one, I put a bunch of things in my cart, and then at check-out I'm supposed to select the delivery time, but there are no options available for that, so I can't actually place an order. Oh, for this other one, I placed an order successfully, but then the store called me and said they actually can't, so they cancelled it.

I have been checking various apps several times a day to see if there are any options for groceries, and on a few rare occasions, I've actually gotten an order delivered successfully, so yay, I guess.

Like, this is hard for me, and I'm the kind of person who's really organized, always using different apps to compare the prices, I have backup plans for my backup plans. I can read Chinese and have no problem at all using Chinese apps, and my husband is good at cooking with the normal ingredients you find in an average Chinese grocery store, don't need any special imported things. I say it's "hard for me"- I don't mean like we're worried about starving, I mean like, we might have to heat up frozen dumplings, we can't get the kind of milk we like so we have to switch to the kind that's in boxes and doesn't require refrigeration (and we almost ran out of that too), and we might run out of animal crackers, which are a staple food in our house.

Like, we're not going to starve, but we are going through our freezer like "oh what's this? I didn't know this meat was in here. Could we have this for dinner?"

(Good news, yesterday I did successfully get a big grocery order delivered, so at least for now I am not concerned about it.)

But anyway, yeah, this grocery situation has got to be unbearable for people who are less organized, or can't cook that many things, or don't normally buy things on their phones, or can't read Chinese...

Also, our apartment complex now has a WeChat group for ordering fresh vegetables/meat/rice- the very basic staples for Chinese cooking, that's it. This group... it's not that organized. People post messages about what food they want to buy, and the vendor doesn't reply to any of them. Then the food came in a big van that stopped at the gate of our apartment complex, and I went out to get ours, and they didn't have it. I had to stand around for a long time before the vegetable guy finally checked and he said you had to place your order before noon on the previous day, so that's why they don't have it. Which is ridiculous, because A LOT of people posted in the group to place orders after we did (and apparently they didn't get their food either) but the group mod never replied to say clearly when the deadline was. Just basically doing a bad job of managing a group with over a hundred people.

We have had better luck with the leader for our specific building- she sometimes posts in our building's WeChat group to say she can get vegetables for us, or she can get a pallet of 30 eggs, and she is reliable about answering messages and actually bringing the food.

I have seen jokes on social media about how green vegetables are a luxury item now, lol.

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Health code:

So this morning (March 25) the city of Shanghai posted on their WeChat to say that anyone who hasn't been covid-tested since March 16 needs to get covid-tested, and if they don't, their health code will turn yellow tonight at 6 pm.

Let me explain the health codes. I have mentioned it on my blog before but I haven't done a whole explainer so here we go:

Actually there are 2 different ones:

Health code (called 随身码 or 健康码):

This one requires you to log in with your name and ID number. I am not sure what data it uses exactly, but it seems like it can be more like, customized to you personally (ie, the powers-that-be can use it to flag you), unlike the "travel code" which is simply your 14-day travel history. As I said, the city of Shanghai announced that anyone who hadn't been covid-tested since March 16 will have their health code turn yellow- so it has access to the data about when you personally have been covid-tested.

The health code is a green QR code, which is apparently able to be scanned so that places can keep a log of everyone who was there. Seems that nobody actually does this though- mine has never been scanned. The security guard just looks at it and waves you through. (Who knows, maybe since we're in an outbreak now, they've started actually scanning them. I have no idea because I haven't gone anywhere since March 9.)

If you're low-risk, it's green. If you're medium- or high-risk, it's yellow or red, respectively. That's never happened to me; I've always been green.

Example health code. Image source.

Travel code (行程码):

The "travel code" uses your phone's SIM card (I think- I think it's the SIM card and not GPS) to check where you have travelled in the past 14 days. If you haven't been in any medium-risk or high-risk places, then it will show a green arrow. (This one is a simple arrow, not a QR code.)

I guess it could also be yellow or red to indicate medium- or high-risk places, but that's never happened to me.

Also, under the arrow, it has a list of the cities you've travelled to in the past 14 days. Sometimes, even though your arrow is green, you have a city in your list with an asterisk. Like this: 上海市*. That means that city has had medium- or high-risk areas within the past 14 days, but you personally did not go to those specific areas, so you're fine.

(Well, actually. Some cities have rules about not allowing people to enter if they come from a city with an asterisk. So that can be an issue if you're trying to travel.)

As far as I know, the "travel code" doesn't need your actual real name or any other personal information, just your phone number. And then it looks up your travel history based on that.

Travel code. Image source.

Both of these codes have been in use for about 2 years. Here is basically how I've seen them used:

Restaurants, subway stations, taxis: nobody checks

Malls: There is a security guard who is checking. You can show them either the health code or travel code, no need to show both. They don't really care. Actually you could even show them a screenshot of somebody else's, because they're not looking closely enough to notice. (You are definitely not supposed to do that though.) Children don't need a health code.

Tourist sites, the subway station right next to the airport, and other places where you'll have people from out-of-town: They are more serious about checking. Still only need to show 1 of the codes, and still not required for children.

Hospitals: They check both the health code and the travel code. (But not needed for children.)

Airports: I don't remember if they were checking one code or both, but the key thing about the airport was they were requiring health codes for children too. My kid doesn't have a phone obviously, so we had to fill out a paper with his information, which wasn't that much of an inconvenience. Apparently there's also a way you can add a child health code to your own account.

Anyway. Yeah there's been a lot of mass testing over the past week or so, but it is definitely possible to avoid. We could have been hiding people in here and no one would know. There totally are people with legitimate reasons to not be at home during the lockdowns, and I don't think Shanghai is really trying to track down every single individual person... I think they're just turning the health codes yellow, which will be an issue when those people try to enter a public place. (And probably the security guards will be paying more attention to checking the health codes now because we're actually having an outbreak.)

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Overall: Well I'm tired of being in lockdown. Things are fine for me personally, and Shanghai is doing a good job overall (though there are things that aren't working as efficiently as they should- but that's just what happens in a lockdown), but man I am tired of staying at home. It's been 2 weeks. I would like to send my kid to daycare. And go out places. Go to the office. Go out and see friends.

We really have no idea how long this will last. Probably 1-2 months, I would guess.

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With Fresh Urgency, China Pleads With Seniors to Get Vaccinated (March 25)

Locals Detained for Avoiding Virus Tests, Flouting COVID-19 Rules (March 24)

Shanghai’s Lifeline Amid COVID-19: Delivery Workers and Volunteers (March 23)

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Follow-up post: Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown

Blogaround

Movie poster for "Turning Red." Image source.

1. Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton Are Engaged (posted March 17)

2. Former Christianity Today editor Mark Galli accused of sexual harassment (posted March 15) and Sexual Harassment Went Unchecked at Christianity Today (posted March 15)

3. Why don't Jigsaw Puzzles have the correct number of pieces? (posted March 4) YES, THANK YOU, "Stand-up Maths" is asking the REAL QUESTIONS. This guy wrote a python script to predict the actual number of pieces, based on the claimed number of pieces, the dimensions of the puzzle, factors, ratios, and some subjective opinion stuff about quantifying how wrong it would be to have weird long pieces and/or a number way off from the claimed amount. I LOVE IT.

(Yeah I remember I was SO MAD when I was a teenager and liked to do 1000-piece puzzles and I discovered that actually it's not *EXACTLY* a thousand pieces! Probably about as mad as when I found out about "unabridged dictionaries"- WHAT, you mean all the words aren't in the REGULAR DICTIONARY???!!!)

4. We saw the new Pixar movie, "Turning Red," and I loved it. It's about a Chinese-Canadian 13-year-old girl, and I am happy to tell you that it has my Chinese husband's stamp of approval.

5. No Digits. No Clues. No Hope?! (posted 2021) A 1-hour sudoku video. I love it so much.

6. At the Bottom of an Icy Sea, One of History’s Great Wrecks Is Found (posted March 9) "The wreck of Endurance has been found in the Antarctic, 106 years after the historic ship was crushed in pack ice and sank during an expedition by the explorer Ernest Shackleton." This is INCREDIBLE.

7. Star Wars is Really a Cautionary Tale About Devoting All Technological Advancements to Death (posted 2018) "This means that these trash disposers, which have entrance points to permit living beings in and out of them, have no software for the purpose of detecting certain types of life and powering down on detecting that presence. It would seem the most obvious type of software to have in area so casually dangerous…and yet there’s nothing whatsoever."

8. Deconstructing Jealousy (posted 2016) "I don’t think that 'jealousy' is a useful concept. It’s used as an umbrella term for a variety of negative interpersonally-triggered feelings that are actually quite different from each other. Unfortunately, people don’t always realize this and may communicate about 'jealousy' without noticing that they’re talking about different things. ... I’ve identified six different feelings that are often called 'jealousy.'"

9. China's zero-Covid policy is showing signs of strain. But ditching it now could be a disaster (posted March 21) "'The problem is that if you continue to highlight the danger of the disease and demonize the pandemic response efforts of other countries, it means that the fear in the public won't fade away, and that makes moving away from a zero-Covid strategy difficult,' said CFR's Huang."