Trip Overview
When: December 2020 - February 2021 (winter, peak COVID era)
Duration: 120 days total trip, 37 days in quarantine
Travelers: Couple (husband and wife)
Budget: ~75,000 RMB (~$10,500 USD)
Transportation: International flight from US to Shanghai, then domestic to Guangzhou
Essential Foreigner Info
Getting There: Flying into China during COVID means mandatory quarantine. Book flights well in advance as entry quotas apply.
Quarantine Reality: China operates a strict three-layer quarantine system: 14 days at designated hotel, then 7 days home isolation, with multiple PCR tests throughout.
Medical Costs: For Chinese citizens with domestic health insurance, quarantine and COVID treatment are completely free. Foreigners pay out of pocket—my 10-day hospital stay would have cost $14,000+ in the US.
Language: All official communications are in Chinese. Having a Chinese-speaking family member or friend to coordinate is essential.
Day 1: The Red Code
After 35 days since arriving from the US via Shanghai, my health code finally turned green this morning! The relief is hard to describe—green means freedom, red means locked down.
Day 2-5: Shanghai Fifth People's Hospital
On December 21st, I arrived in Shanghai and checked into my quarantine hotel. Within hours, I was notified that I was positive and needed to transfer to a medical facility. First stop: Shanghai Fifth People's Hospital (上海第五人民医院), where I spent 4 days in an observation room.
The room was about 15 square meters—bare minimum. One bed, one nightstand, one red plastic thermos, and nothing else. The bathroom had a simple faucet without hot water, plus a makeshift shower nozzle attached to a pipe. No curtain, no privacy. The door was locked from outside, the large glass window had no curtains, and the corridor lights plus the opposite office building's lights shone through like searchlights all night.
Meals arrived three times daily through a柜子 system—someone would knock on the supply cabinet, I'd open my interior door to retrieve. Breakfast: one steamed bun, one box of congee, one small packet of preserved vegetables. Lunch and dinner: identical boxes with rice, one meat dish, one vegetable dish. I once found a patient registration card in my food—after that, I lost my appetite completely.
Foreigner tip: The quarantine facilities vary dramatically in quality. I was unlucky with this first stop—it felt like going from a 1970s detention center to a modern prison when I moved to the next facility.
Jinshan Public Health Clinical Center
From Shanghai Fifth People's Hospital, I was transferred to Jinshan Public Health Clinical Center (金山公共卫生临床中心)—the designated COVID treatment center in Shanghai. Located in Jinshan District, in Shanghai's southwest near the Zhejiang border, this facility feels like a modern hospital from another world compared to the Fifth People's Hospital.
The campus features traditional Chinese garden-style architecture with yellow tiles and white walls, only three stories tall, spread across multiple courtyards. Areas are divided by disease type: COVID, tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV, etc. Everything was eerily quiet—all wards are sealed off.
When I arrived on December 24th, there were 189 patients. Within 10 days, that number doubled to 400. The hospital opened a second building to accommodate everyone. Despite the crowd, compared to the Fifth People's Hospital, this was paradise: modern construction, automatic hands-free doors, negative pressure rooms, 24-hour hot water, and three meal options (40, 60, or 100 RMB per day). Every meal included eggs, milk or yogurt, and lunch and dinner featured soup. The menu changed daily but always included tofu, fish, and vegetables. I was throwing away 2 eggs and 1-2 fruits daily—I simply couldn't eat it all.
Upon admission, everyone pays a 5,000 RMB deposit. If you have Chinese domestic health insurance, the entire deposit is refunded—treatment, food, and medication are completely free. Foreigners pay full price. A young man who was discharged the same day as me had accumulated 6,800 RMB in charges for his 10-day stay.
Reality check: Negative pressure rooms prevent cross-infection—the airflow moves upward, not horizontally. I shared a room with two other patients during my stay: one young woman from the US (same flight as me, arrived 2 days earlier, asymptomatic) and one from the UK (had been there for over 10 days, had a cough). Despite sharing space, I never contracted COVID from them—the system works.
I was admitted as a weak positive, tested negative the same day, then negative again on day 8. The municipal CDC confirmed negative on day 9, and I was discharged on day 10. My two roommates—both asymptomatic from the US and UK—stayed a full 30 days each. This reveals something important: no cross-infection occurred despite shared rooms, and complete COVID recovery takes around 30 days for most people.
I likely tested positive in China because Chinese testing standards are stricter than America's—or perhaps I had residual virus that wasn't transmissible. The Chinese authorities, being cautious, required me to test completely clean before release.
Day 14+: Hotel Quarantine
After discharge from Jinshan, I transferred to a hotel for 14 days of additional quarantine. Before release, I underwent the same rigorous testing as hospital discharge: double nasal swab, throat swab, blood test, urine test, plus environmental testing—including my phone and pillow surfaces.
Pro hack: The hotel quarantine is more comfortable than hospital isolation. You can order外卖 (delivery), watch TV, and move around your room more freely. Some hotels even allow window opening.
Day 30-37: Home Quarantine in Guangzhou
After 30 days of hotel and hospital quarantine in Shanghai, I finally returned to Guangzhou for 7 days of home quarantine. Total isolation: 37 days. If it weren't for my phone and TV, I would have gone mad from cabin fever. My roommate during hotel quarantine was anxious and despairing—we'd come home to be with family for Chinese New Year, but instead wouldn't be free until several days into the new year.
US vs China: COVID Treatment Comparison
Having experienced COVID in both countries, the difference is stark. In the US, COVID is treated essentially as a bad flu. Unless you have severe symptoms or need the防重症 (severe case prevention) injection, you get no treatment at all—just go home. The CDC calls to check on you, requires 21 days of home isolation, and requires daily health reporting. That's it.
In China, every positive case is hospitalized, monitored, and treated—for free if you're a citizen. The testing is extremely rigorous: upon admission, I had 13 tubes of venous blood drawn, 1 tube of arterial blood, stool and urine samples, plus nasal and throat swabs. The same battery of tests upon discharge.
The cost: My 10-day stay in a modern negative pressure room with 24-hour hot water, three meals daily, and Chinese medicine treatment? 6,800 RMB (~$950 USD). The same stay in a US hospital would have been $14,000+. Without insurance, that could bankrupt a family.
No wonder the US has a higher COVID death rate: some people refuse vaccines, others can't afford treatment. China can afford to provide free treatment because they have a system that catches every case before it spreads.
As Zhong Nanshan (钟南山) noted, China has achieved 80%+ vaccination and now has特效药 (specific medications). Once the fatality rate can be controlled below 0.01%, China can reopen. The US has vaccines and medications too—but lacks universal healthcare and free COVID treatment. That's the difference.