Finally, going home...

After our #covidlife in the safe haven and hospitable Taipei, my secondborn and I are back in mainland China for the first day of our offsite quarantine in Shanghai (before heading home to my wife and firstborn since 185 days ago).

Impressive operation they have here. Our hotel room doors are opened at least 12 times a day for meals + trash retrieval and temperature taking w an infrared thermometer (not even on the forehead - we're told to open the door slightly and stick out our wrist for the temperature read).

Everything feels like Project Mayhem from Fight Club: dark, dank (from the constant sterilization), random walkie talkie scratchy noises at all hours from within the building and outside parking lot that's been transformed into a mini command center, hazmat suited workers operating a pretty rigorous schedule, w a hive station that's close to the lobby (from what I could tell last night when I confusedly and wrongly went through the main entrance, even non-essential areas of the building are closed and cordoned off from us intl travelers and our rooms - we entered the hotel from a side entrance up fire escape stairs that was small and enclosed and containable probably deliberately designed).

There's even a bag in our room of some sort of disinfectant powder that we're instructed to mix w our feces and wait an hour before flushing = badass.

Every surface area of every hallway is covered w plastic sheeting (floors walls ceilings etc.) and there's noticeable wear-n-tear most likely from all the luggage and patrolling and random scratches and rips on the walls that's been tarped, taped, and patched up. 

Every single inanimate object and personnel here (and previously at the airport yesterday) feels grimy and tested and exhausted but determined and enduring ... and somehow saying the words 你们辛苦了 to every set of fogged up eye protection gear that's dripping inside w sweat and condensation and every smile to my kid covered up by PPE isn't enough to convey our deepest appreciation for everyone's hard work and our gratitude for a greater more robust and resilient system that's operating behind them. 

[many thanks to my dear friend Marc F. for encouraging me to post this excerpt from our conversation on July 28 in my response to his question “how is the hotel.”]

// Joey Gu