From Hospital To Quarantine And Back: Ordeal Of US Lawyer Who Visited China To Meet Parents

Xue Liangquan, a California-based lawyer had already shelled out $7,600 for airfare. He boarded his flight from Los Angeles to the Chinese city of Guangzhou to visit his parents in eastern Shandong Province in January, for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Xue, 37, had submitted negative test results to the Chinese authorities, as required for entry. Upon arrival, he would have to do three weeks of quarantine. Little did he know that he was in for a horrific time.

Xue Liangquan

Released from one round of isolation, he would immediately find himself ordered into another. By the time of his return flight, he would have had about two days of freedom in China. He would not have seen his parents at all.

Xue, through a streak of bad luck and run-ins with China¡¯s unbending virus rules, would spend the next three months in quarantine, bouncing between hospitals and hotel rooms. Here's how the story goes as per his blog post.

Journey began on Jan 2

His ill-fated journey began on January 2, when, armed with a negative Covid test, he took off from Los Angeles. In Guangzhou, he was tested again, then sent to a quarantine hotel. His room was a pleasant surprise ¡ª it even had a large Jacuzzi. Perhaps the next few weeks would be like a mini-vacation, he thought.

Spoke to soon he thought, Xue was received a phone call informing him that his airport test was positive. He would be transferred to a hospital by ambulance, marking the first of many hospital trips he was about to take in the coming 3 months.

Xue struggled into full-body protective gear that was left at his door. His breath fogged up his glasses and the face covering. ¡°All I could see were the drops of water endlessly dripping down,¡± he wrote in his blog post.

Xue Liangquan

He spent the next four weeks in a hospital, sharing a room with two other patients. He video-chatted with his parents every day, reassuring them that his symptoms were mild.

He took photographs of his food to show them that he was eating all right. (In reality, Xue said, he took photos only of the best meals, so they would not worry.) He passed time, working remotely for the law firm he founded.

Xue Liangquan

Jan 31

Came January 31, the eve of Lunar New Year and China¡¯s biggest holiday, which he had hoped to spend with family at home -- but he watched the Spring Festival Gala, a televised extravaganza, on his tablet, alone in bed.

¡°At first, I felt pretty depressed,¡± he said. ¡°All you can do is suffer. And, within your limited capacity, arrange your daily life as best you can. When you should shower, shower. When you should brush your teeth, brush.¡±

Feb 1

Almost a month after the journey began, on February 1, he was released from the hospital ¡ª and transferred to another one, for recovered patients, for two more weeks of ¡°medical observation.¡±

Xue Liangquan

After leaving the second hospital, Xue flew to Shanghai, where he had relatives. (He had given up on going to Shandong, as its quarantine rules were stricter than Shanghai¡¯s at the time.) The test he took there, as required by local rules, was negative. For the first time in a month, he was free.

Feb 19

The freedom lasted only two days. On February 19, Guangzhou health officials notified him that the lone other man with whom he had shared a bus from the last hospital had tested positive. That made Xue a close contact, meaning he now had to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine.

Mar 6

Then, on March 6 ¡ª the very day he was to be released from that quarantine ¡ª he received another call. He himself had now tested positive again, an official told him. Xue demanded proof, but the official refused, he said.

¡°The hardest part for me was the lack of certainty,¡± he said. ¡°Each time I thought one stage had ended, and I was about to be free, the nightmare would return.¡±

So, the procedure began again with which Xue was amply familiar by now. Two more weeks at a medical facility. Two weeks after that at a hotel.

Mar 31

Finally, on March 31, Xue was set free, for real. But, exhausted by his ordeal, he had given up hope of seeing his parents and booked an April 1 flight back to the United States. The only relative he saw was his younger brother, in Shanghai.

Xue

Once, Xue would have been devastated: Living overseas, he said, he had long cherished, even fixated on, the idea of home. But weeks of isolation had given him a new perspective.

Xue, who was born in China and moved to the United States seven years ago, remains determinedly neutral of the situation. ¡°I don¡¯t blame anyone: no person, government, organization,¡± he said. ¡°I can only blame myself, for having such bad luck.¡±

Xue is sympathetic to China¡¯s controls. The country¡¯s population is so large and so quickly aging, he said, that living with the virus could be disastrous. But he himself will not be trying to return again until restrictions have eased.

¡°Otherwise, I think I would still feel sort of traumatized,¡± he said. ¡°I really am rather scared.¡±

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