Earlier this year, my sister Kimberly and I were discussing the possibility of going to Hong Kong to visit our Popo (maternal grandmother in Cantonese) considering Covid restrictions around the world were loosening up. General Mills has this awesome remote work policy called “work with heart” where you can work remote anywhere in the country up to 30 days without manager approval and if you work abroad, you have to get it cleared by our global mobility team.
I reached out to the team because at the time, there was still a 7 day mandatory hotel quarantine policy for Hong Kong for all new arrivals. I figured since we’d be stuck in a hotel for a week, we might as well work. Unfortunately, the Chinese government requires a work visa for any length of work so my request was denied. I was disappointed but the idea of visiting was still a priority for me as my grandparents lived with us in Minneapolis for about 7 years until my dad and I got cancer in 2018 and had to move to Hong Kong as it would have been too much for my immediate family to handle.
In August, it was announced that the quarantine would be reduced to 3 days in a hotel and rumors that it might be abolished completely soon after. Kimberly and I booked the tickets right away and then about a week later, the news reported that there would be no more hotel quarantine, just a rigorous testing schedule and no restaurants until 3 days after arrival.
Joanna and I JUST got back from our Europe trip 6 weeks ago but she was able to request for a few additional days off as we’re overlapping this trip with Thanksgiving week. Both of us have been to Hong Kong on separate trips but never together. I’m really grateful that she’s coming with because my Cantonese is nowhere near as good as hers and we had 3 check in luggages full of stuff to bring back to family so she was basically a supply mule :p
Normally I’m super excited for any opportunity to travel abroad but this trip was causing me a lot of anxiety. I really feel like God was keeping an eye out for us though, as I was able to opt out of a work trip to the east coast this week, Joanna’s work trip to Orlando was cancelled last minute, and Kimberly had a trip to one of our factories rescheduled as well. All of these trips would have come with risk of Covid exposure and it’s just not something we can afford to have happen with how strict the government is with visitors.
The requirements were that we needed to be fully vaccinated, take a rapid test 24 hours prior to departure, fill out a lengthy health declaration form prior to arrival, take a PCR test upon arrival in Hong Kong, take a rapid test every day for the first 7 days you’re here, and go to a testing facility every other day for 6 days to do a PCR test. Failure to comply is a $1,200 USD fine. What’s funny is that after we’ve done all of the testing on Friday, we fly back home on Saturday night.
Here’s a picture of all of the test we brought for ourselves. Did you know that Covid tests expire after 6 months? We did not and had to throw away a ton of them at home and acquire new ones.
Overall the trip to Hong Kong was uneventful, it was weird how we got on the plane at 11am Thursday morning and didn’t arrive until 11pm Friday night, basically losing 2 full days.
We had a 4 hour layover in Seoul so we got the chance to wander around the airport. It was SO quiet, you would think it was a library. The airport was super shiny and clean with a random park right in the middle.
Arrival into Hong Kong went smoothly, they walked us through the airport single file to undergo the PCR tests. A quick mouth swab later and we were free to go. We definitely weren’t the first to get off the plane but with the shuffle of arriving passengers, somehow we were the first to get to immigration with no one else around.
Kimberly did a great job finding a hotel for us. She spent weeks scouring the HK visitor Facebook group looking for recommendations and finally settled on the Cordis hotel, 2 bed 1.5 bath for $150 a night.
It was about 1am when we were unpacked and showered so we went out in search for food. There was a corner street food vendor that had random meat and vegetables on skewers that you put in a basket and they would either dunk in soup broth or grill to order but they only took cash or octopus card (more on this later). We settled doing a food shopping spree at 7-11 which I have no complaints about.
This trip is going to be different than my normal adventure-y ones as the primary goal is to spend time with our Popo while she’s still with us. Also, Hong Kong is Kimberly’s home away from home as she did a study abroad here and she’s visited more times than I have so I’m going to defer to her on activities.
