This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around

The setting sun reflects off the clouds following a rainstorm outside our hotel in Guangzhou

It's the ninth day of our quarantine in our hotel room in Guangzhou 广州, and assuming we test negative tomorrow, on Tuesday we'll be set free (or paroled, to be more accurate) and allowed to travel to Beijing 北京, our final destination. Remarkably, despite initially being told otherwise, the three of us have been allowed to share one room rather than be split up for the ten-day duration of the quarantine. Even more remarkably, we haven't turned on each other (yet). It helps that during the weekdays I've had online Mandarin lessons to pass my time, while my wife has been doing cross-stitched embroidery and our daughter has preoccupied herself with the usual video games and her newest obsession, Formula One racing!

Getting to this point was a minor adventure. Due to China's Zero-COVID restrictions, flying commercially into the country is a difficult, expensive and unreliable way to travel. So the State Department has been chartering flights for U.S. government workers and their families to ensure the diplomatic missions can maintain staffing (and for people to take much-needed vacations from all the coronavirus restrictions). Our special flight left Dulles in the late evening of August 10 (following not one, not two, but three negative COVID tests), and arrived about seven hours later in Anchorage, Alaska. Following a crew change, we resumed our trip, heading toward the next stop on the itinerary, Incheon Airport near Seoul. We wouldn't get there, however - a power failure in the cabin (which didn't affect the plane's engines) about 90 minutes into the flight forced the jet to turn back to Anchorage. Which is how we found ourselves staying in a hotel room for more than eight hours, waiting for the trip to China to resume:

In the early morning hours at Anchorage's airport, waiting for word on whether we would be getting back on the plane or spending the night in the city. The answer in the end was "neither".

Our daughter waits to board the bus for the hotel. Not the kind of welcome we would have expected under normal circumstances. But things haven't been normal now for the past 2½ years now, have they?

The view from our hotel room in downtown Anchorage

At least that's what Amber and Shu-E did (except for going downstairs for a late breakfast and early dinner). I, on the other hand, feeling that I couldn't add Alaska to the list of U.S. states visited if I didn't actually do some exploring, went outside for a walk*. The first stop on my stroll was the statue of Captain James Cook, who visited the region in 1778:

Despite the overcast conditions, there was a good view of Mount Susitna (4396 feet/1340 meters) across the Knik Arm waterway:

A giant wall mural near the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall:

This life-sized moose replica could've been mine for the low, low price of $7999:

A view of downtown Anchorage:

On Thursday evening we were taken by bus back to the airport, and flew to Incheon without incident. Following another crew change and cabin cleaning, we arrived at the airport in Guangzhou** on a Saturday morning local time (what happened to Friday?). Separated from the rest of the airport by workers in hazmat suits, we were eventually able to retrieve our bags and be taken by bus to our quarantine hotel. This has been our view since:

There have been brief spells of rain:

A morning scene, taken around 0700 hours (you can see the airport control tower in the background):

And that's been pretty much it. I mean were in quarantine in a hotel room with a king-sized bed for Shu-E and me, and a rollaway for Amber to sleep in, so what more is there to say? Our temperatures are checked daily, and we've had several swabs taken, with the negative results continuing their winning streak. And as for meals, we get them. Food is brought to the room three times a day, with the offerings for lunch and dinner looking like this:

I've been opting for the "Western-style" breakfasts, which consist of five slices of white bread, three packets of sliced cheese and two jam packets, plus a carton of white milk. Morning after morning after morning. Overall, the food has been edible, plus it helps that my wife has a cousin living in Suzhou 苏州 who has been able to supplement our rations with milk teas and snacks (ordering drinks and food from outside is allowed). Still, I'm looking forward to having some variety when we finally get to Beijing.

So that's about it for now. After getting to our assigned residence in Beijing, we'll be busy getting things set up, and familiarizing ourselves with the strict coronavirus protocols in the capital city. And as a friend already in China puts it, the realities of the the zero COVID policy mean we will still be quarantined off from the rest of the world. We may be able to freely move about Beijing, and even travel to other parts of China (and possibly get trapped in another lockdown, as happened recently in Hainan 海南), but we can forget about visiting family and friends in Taiwan, or traveling again in Japan, for at least until next spring. Any longer, and I may have to reconsider why we're here in the first place.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Hopefully it won't be the light General Westmoreland swore he could see. Until next time, when we're settled down in Beijing...we hope

* Including The Last Frontier, the total is 36 - 37 if you include the District of Columbia

** Not my first time in the airport. I spent in a weekend in Guangzhou back in March 2015

The final dispatch?

 

The Pacific Northwest

39 days since we departed Falls Church by car in late June, Home Leave finally came to an end. During those nearly six weeks, we traveled through eleven states and four time zones on a three-week cross-country road trip, before spending the remainder of the time near our legal domiciled residence north of Seattle. We're now back temporarily in Falls Church, having flown from Seatac to Dulles last Tuesday, getting ready for the long flight to China this upcoming Wednesday, negative COVID-19 tests willing. During these past 5½ weeks or so I've shared our trek on no less than fifteen blog posts uploaded while on the road; in addition, I reported on our weekend across the border in Vancouver, as well as a visit to a Shintō shrine in the Pacific northwest. For this post I've sorted through the Cloud drawers to share some scattered photos from the last eighteen days of Home Leave, like this one taken at the Tahoma National Cemetery, where I went to visit the graves of my parents:

Our daughter had been feeling "homesick" for Taiwan while we were on the road, so the glee she felt when discovering a branch of Formosa's own 85°C Bakery Café in Lynwood, Washington didn't come as a surprise:

I'd never cared much for the chain while living in Taiwan, but distance and time (and daughters) have a way of changing minds:

Although she still has a couple of years of high school to finish, and hasn't decided where she would like to matriculate (I've been pushing for Cambridge in the U.K., or somewhere in Australia, for the travel visitation opportunities, so far without much success), my wife suggested taking a tour of the University of Washington while we were in the area. The fountain by the mountain - sort of. If you look very closely, you might be able to make out Mt. Rainier (14,417 feet/4394 meters) in the background:

The Reading Room in the Suzzallo Library, giving off some serious Harry Potter vibes, and reminding me of the Great Hall at Christ Church college in Oxford:

Another attempt at capturing the fountain and the mountain:

The Four Columns, or LIFE, one of those cherished college traditions I'm glad my uni didn't have:

Amber was impressed with the campus (while her parents were impressed with recent revisions to the law making it easier for Foreign Service kids to qualify for in-state tuition):

George Washington looking more like a Crusader than a Patriot:

Popcorn chicken 雞米花 and bubble tea 珍珠奶茶 at Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea 一芳台灣水果茶 in Edmonds:

Enjoying a Taiwanese sausage biàndāng 便當 at the above-mentioned Taiwanese tea shop:

A modern family. In our defense, we were feeling bored following Shu-E around while she was shopping in Macy's:

On one afternoon we met up for lunch with my sister at the Elephant & Castle pub in Seattle. Getting in touch with my roots with a steak & mushroom pie:

Strolling through Seattle's central business district after lunch and admiring the skateboard ramp-inspired architecture:

The International District in Seattle:

One afternoon we went for a drive north at my wife's urging to visit the Big Four Ice Caves. After 80 minutes on the road we reached the parking lot and started walking toward the caves:

Insect eggs:

The surrounding mountains (with pockets of snow remaining in mid-summer) were inspiring:

Unfortunately, the last section of the bridge spanning the Stillaguamish River had been removed for safety reasons, meaning we couldn't reach the caves. Some people opted to wade through the water to continue the hike, but we decided to soak in the scenery instead:

No visit to Washington is complete with a stop at an Ivar's for some clam chowder:

Visiting Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. The lighthouse was closed, but the scenery featuring Mt. Baker in the distance was impressive:

Shu-E rescues a sea star as the ferry leaves Mukilteo for Clinton:

On the Saturday before we returned to the other Washington, we met up for lunch with my friends Lisa and Rob in Edmonds. I had a great time seeing them again, so great that I forgot to take any photos, so here's the view outside a Starbucks (near the Edmonds Summer Market) while we waited for my friends:

I also neglected to take any pictures with my sister when we had dinner at Kona Kitchen in Lynnwood, but you can see photos of Karen on my post about Vancouver:

We had a much clearer view of Mt. Rainier on another visit to the graves of my mother and father:

On the way back from the cemetery we stopped in Issaquah. Amber pointed out that every "historic town" in America seems to have an old caboose on display:

Having dim sum for lunch in Issaquah:

Get thee to a hatchery:

Nostalgia in the downtown area:

A final "cocktail" in Washington state at the end of Home Leave:

Now back in Falls Church, we've been self-isolating as much as possible in preparation for departure. I did make one exception this Saturday afternoon by visiting the National Museum of Asian Art, though making sure to wear a mask and keep my distance from everyone around me. The current exhibits hadn't changed since my last visit back in spring, but I did get a preview of two soon-to-open exhibitions, like Feathered Ink...:

…and Once Upon a Roof, detailing the reconstruction of a Buddhist temple in South Korea:

Next stop: Beijing 北京. That is, if we test negative during pre-departure checks on Monday and Tuesday; after arriving in Guangzhou 广州 on Friday; and during the ten days of quarantining there before we can travel to our final destination in China's capital. Assuming all three of us are certified coronavirus-free, we're potentially facing up to three years of a zero-COVID enforced stay as the Chinese government has shown no indication of joining the rest of the world in opening up. If that remains the case, then instead of traveling to Japan, Taiwan et al, we'll be taking charter flights back to: