Enjoying spring in Guangzhou (no more quarantine)

This has been an interesting two weeks. I was cautious when I was in the US. I came back to China with cases already increasing in Shanghai. To be honest, I was already concerned as China has not had large case numbers and recently had made it more difficult to travel even within its borders due to more cases of the omicron variant in multiple cities. But the case numbers are nowhere near what they are in other countries.

After my release from quarantine on March 30, there were two school days before Spring break. I finally was able to see the new building!!! This picture is taken in the media center looking upwards. There are many places for students to sit and work including these enclosed boxes. The classrooms are on the back side of the hallways on each floor.

After spring break, classes are online….. Teachers can still go to school and get a little opportunity to play during breaks.

I could not travel so I planned to do outdoor exploring and dining. I had been inside for over 3 weeks. See the end of this post to learn about the two codes China uses to track infections and why I could not travel.

I connected with friends, went to dinner (outdoor generally), took walks, and enjoyed the beautiful flowers.

I went with my friend Heidi to Haizhu Lake park. Beautiful! The self driving drink vehicle was interesting.

Of course dragon boating and stand up paddle boarding are some of my favorite activities!

The sights at night are still beautiful here!

It felt great to go back to volunteering with homeless love and seeing my friends Shalini and Sai.

There are less people out generally than normal and everyone wears masks. In my travel in China these past years, people in Guangzhou wear masks at a higher rate than other places. In fact, the lax mask wearing rules has had me concerned. When SARS broke out a decade ago, it was here in Guangzhou. The citizens have a more protective mentality.

And now there are more requests for community testing. It is an annoyance and some places have to test everyday. But they identify areas of concern and control it much easier this way. I wonder how long they can continue to do this as it is disruptive on people’s lives and those that cannot go to work and work from home are really suffering.

They scan your code which keeps track of your test so that the results are posted where you can see it.

Of concern are the lines of people being tested who have yellow codes (green is good, red is not so). Yellow means you have visited or been near a place that had a positive case. Your location history is used and you would have to have been near the area for over 10 minutes. It is a precaution but you cannot go to work out travel by mass transit. You cannot enter buildings and must stay home except to take 3 tests in 7 days. This is the line for those people. I know, they are out in public and it is not a perfect system. At least they are not taken to quarantine. If they were in close contact of someone who tested positive, then they would be.

China has two codes, one to show whether you may have been in contact with people who may or may not have COVID and to show your latest test results. I am always happy when my red quarantine code is changed to green.

The other code shows your travel history. If you traveled to another destination that is considered medium risk, an asterisk appears next to the name of the city. As my quarantine was in Shanghai, I have the asterisk and therefore cannot travel, join a tour, or check into a hotel. I was actually lucky to leave Shanghai at the time that I did as most flights out have also been stopped since.

After the mark for Shanghai was removed, Guangzhou had cases and now I have another mark for this city.

I am really hoping to be able to travel this summer and the next school year. I signed another one year contract and will leave China after next school year. Of course all of this is subject to change as who knows what will happen next here or in the world.