Permanent Vacation: Beijing Expats Struggle to Return

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Like many Beijingers who chose to go abroad for Spring Festival, when news broke that the holiday would be extended until Feb 3, I was quick to pick up the phone and start adding dates to my hotel and looking for later flights, eager to bask in the partly-cloudy warmth of Hanoi’s tropical grandeur just a little bit longer. After all, due to the virus, a majority of airlines and third-party bookers were offering liberal cancellation policies, and given that life in the People’s Republic had all but ground to a halt, it seemed like a natural choice.

We decided to rebook our flight from Jan 30 to Feb 2 and made the necessary arrangements at our hotel. For all the misfortune and tragic loss of life now spreading across the globe daily, it felt like a sliver of silver lining.

For the next few days, my girlfriend and I explored Hanoi, walking along Long Bien Bridge and gorging ourselves on bánh mì in the Old Quarter, blissfully unaware of what awaited us.

As each day passed, we watched airlines begin suspending and canceling flights into and out of China. What started out as big names in the West like Lufthansa and United quickly snowballed into an all-encompassing moratorium on any air travel to our adopted home.

We had told ourselves that while the big airlines were acting out of an abundance of caution, surely those Asia-based ones who make so much of their money via the Chinese tourism industry would continue to operate uninterrupted. Unfortunately, we were wrong.    

And so it was that on Feb 1 around 9 pm, less than 24 hours before we were to leave for the airport, the dreaded email hit our inbox: Your Vietnam Airlines flight has been canceled.

As we began browsing flights, it became devastatingly clear that everything was either cancelled or sold out. Some options presented themselves, many of which included layovers in Hong Kong, however given the unpredictable nature of the situation, coupled with the fact that Hong Kong is not the cheapest city in the world, we couldn’t run the risk of getting stranded there for an indefinite amount of time.

Moreover, as I didn’t have my laptop with me, I was unable to get any work done, and I felt helpless and useless as I watched my beijingkids colleagues work tirelessly to keep our readers informed of the news. I wanted to be back, doing my part to help the community on the ground.

When it was all said and done, after about four hours of seemingly endless searching, website refreshing, and phone calls that went nowhere, we were able to book two seats on a flight with a six-hour layover in Chiang Mai, Thailand (figuring it a cheaper place to get stranded, should that happen), culminating in a nearly 13-hour journey.

While I escaped this conundrum with nothing more than a slight headache and a belly full of frustration, other folks have been finding themselves in a significantly more convoluted and compromising situation.

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Marta Smith, a teacher at YueCheng Courtyard Kindergarten was visiting family back home in Portugal when she had not one, but two flights canceled on her. To make matters worse, her husband and two boys had not made the trip to Portugal, meaning she watched from afar as news about the coronavirus continued to spiral, and she found herself stranded across the globe.

“My Lufthansa flight (original flight) was canceled and then I booked a flight with Turkish Airlines,” Smith tells beijingkids. “The following day I received an email saying that they [Turkish Airlines] had also suspended all flights to Beijing.” Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Smith went to the local airport to seek a refund from Turkish Airlines and see what Lufthansa could offer.

“[Lufthansa] said they could get me on an Air China flight the following day if I wanted,” explains Smith. “Although they recommended not to travel, I accepted the opportunity to return home to Beijing.”

When asked if she ever considered staying put in Portugal, Smith says that, “I did ponder getting the rest of the family out to Portugal too, but I thought the media was hyping the situation and felt comfortable returning.”

All told, Smith is happy to be back in Beijing with her family. “It’s a little weird seeing the streets so empty and having your temperature checked everywhere, but I completely understand the precaution and value that this is taking place.”

As for the narratives and rumors swirling around the coronavirus, Smith explains, “I think that it is unfortunate that overseas media has really elaborated this issue to an unnecessary level. We don’t see numbers of recovered patients for example in the news, it’s all negative. We don’t see comparisons of numbers of deaths from pneumonia or flu. I believe this would calm the whole situation.”

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Photos: Southernliving.com, Drew Pittock, courtesy of Marta Smith

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