Feb 6, 2020
The COVID excrement had just hit the blades of the rotating oscillator and China was shutting down all international travel. I booked a single ticket for my wife back to the states and kissed her goodbye. She had to return to retain her US Greencard, and I had to stay to take care of Thor, our French Bulldog. He was 8, too large to fit under a cabin seat, and too old to survive a trip in cargo. Plus only one airline would fly snub-nosed dogs at all. The next day, all international flights were cancelled.
The subway trip back to our apartment was virtually empty, maybe one person per car. Everyone wore a mask. The city was quiet. It was Chinese New Year, but 10x more so. No cars, no people, no open shops. “I am Legend” had hit Shanghai. A city the population of 25 million (greater than all of Australia), was dead.
The rest of the year was tenuous. Masks were required everywhere. Any public place required a Green QR Health Code to enter. Yellow, you were blocked, Red and you might disappear. I traveled around the city little during 2020. Even after the New Year, things were still mostly locked down and the streets were very quiet.
My wife came back in June, for two months, but had to leave again for the arrival of our first grandson. Thor and I, once again, stayed behind. While she was here, we both got vaccinated, and a booster of China’s only approved home-made dead virus vaccine. No foreign vaccines were approved for use in China or as proof of vaccination for entry. Her round trip cost us 4 one-way tickets due to flight cancellations and restrictions. And American Airlines was not refunding tickets (AA sucks). She also had to test negative to board and then spend 2 weeks in a hotel quarantine upon arrival (at our expense), and then 1 week home quarantine – wasting 3 weeks out of her 8 week visit.
2021
2021 is a muddy blur to me now. Days were all the same. I limited my travel around the city more and more as things slowly deteriorated. “Hot Spots” of infections popped up around the city. Customers were being detained inside stores for 2 days because “someone may have, or been in contact with, someone who might have COVID”. It was just me and Thor. I could not afford to be locked up for 2 days with no one to take care of him.
Then on November 1, Thor scratched his eye and I had to take him to the vet. Luckily, they were still “mostly” open and accepting patients. It’s 3km to the vet, Thor used to be able to walk it, but he was 9 then and could not do it. We had bought a buggy for him earlier just for these emergencies. So I pushed him in his buggy there and back, and 3 more times after that for re-checks.
Two weeks later, he got a bad infection in his other eye. The Vet wanted to remove it saying he was mostly blind in it and it would be very very hard to get it to heal. I know Frenchies, and I know Thor. He would not survive the surgery. Since then, I have not ventured more than a few hundred meters from home (except to renew my Visa), nor have I taken any public transportation. I’ve been cleaning and medicating his eyes multiple times a day (and 3-4 times during the night). It’s been nearly a year since his eye injuries, and they are both almost completely healed.
2022
Some time, earlier this year, COVID broke free in Shanghai. I can’t say exactly when that was. Days, weeks, months all blend together and have lost meaning. I can’t afford to get sick. I’m not afraid of COVID. I’m afraid of the government’s extreme reaction to it. I can’t risk being locked up for 2 days in a store due to a ‘possibility’ of infection. And I certainly can’t afford to disappear for 2 weeks in a remote quarantine with no one to take care of Thor. And I’ve seen what happens to pets when their owners are taken away: They are killed.
For 2 months, I never left my 60m2 apartment. Thor learned to potty in the shower. We survived on the kindness of others for food, water, and medicine for Thor. No shops were open, no deliveries were available. I tried to stock up on supplies beforehand, but was blindsided by believing the promise of it only being a 4 day lockdown.
Never again.
We now have 3-6 months of dog food, eye medicine, and shampoo for Thor. 3 months (200L) of bottled water and 3 months of human food all crammed into our little apartment for the next Zombie Apocalypse in Shanghai known as COVID-19.
Now we (our community) are tested 3 times a week, and we must keep our QR Health Codes on our phones Green in order to leave. They must be less than 72 hours old in order to enter a public place or take public transportation. I do a self-test before each mandatory test so I have personal ‘proof’ of non-infection. Every month “they” say this restriction will ease, and every month its extended.
I don’t go out. Everything I need is bought on-line and delivered. My weight it up. My health is down. My mental state is very poor. There is no end in sight to this insanity. While the world opens up, China continues to close in on itself, and everyone everywhere is suffering because of it.
I’ve tried to contacted everyone and everything I can think of to help us get back home to the US: Airlines, cargo ships, private jet charters ($100,000!) Even Elon Musk, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Consulate, Delta Rae. Nobody can, or will help. I cannot, and will not leave Thor behind. He needs to fly in-cabin with me. Not only due to his age and breed, but for the constant care his eyes need to continue to heal.
I’ve never gotten COVID, and at least while I’m in China, I probably never will. And that’s a bad thing. The vaccine and booster I got was for COVID from 2 years ago and was only 50% effective. There is nothing better/newer available as of yet and so I (all of ‘us’) have no resistance to it. It’s a forest drying out with brush fires being quickly extinguished until everything is so hot and dry that the next flare-up will be unstoppable.
China is not a great place to visit, or one to call home, anymore.
Thor and I are slowing dying here. It’s a race to see who goes first…
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/08/15/china/china-covid-shanghai-ikea-lockdown-intl-hnk/index.html