Handling 2 weeks of quarantine to be at Chinaplas

While the mandatory two-week quarantines for travelers coming from outside mainland China deterred almost all overseas visitors to Chinaplas this year, a few hardy people made the choice.

Chinaplas said only 577 of the 44,000 visitors on the first day of the show were not mainland Chinese attendees, compared with about 20 percent overseas in a normal year.

Our China-based reporter Rebecca Kanthor caught up with three of the quarantine travelers on the show floor to ask why it was so important to be at the fair, which ran April 13-16 in Shenzhen, and how they passed their time in isolation.

Chinaplas is the plastics industry's first global show not to have to cancel since the pandemic started.

Patrick Kwan, Senior Supply Chain Director, Samsonite Asia

Based in Hong Kong

Q: Why did you come to Chinaplas?

Kwan: I was invited by our partners. I have to come anyway to visit our vendors.

Q: How did you spend quarantine?

Kwan: In fact, I have come to China four times since the pandemic. So that's four times 14 [days in quarantine]. So it's a bit challenging. The very first time, last May, we started counting the days and just try to plan the activities, which movie to watch during the 14 days. This time I just completely let it go, don't plan, just do whatever you want to do.

I do some exercise. When I say exercise it's just walking in the room, running in place. During quarantine time, I intentionally planned a lot of meetings. Normally the weekends are so quiet, you can't ask people for meetings, so I just play saxophone. I spent a lot of time — seven, eight hours a day. It's a bit annoying [if you were the person in the next room]. But what else can you do? The second time [I did quarantine], the hotel really did not let me play saxophone. They said, "Can you do something like reading books?"

Q: How did it feel to get out of quarantine?

Kwan: This time it just feels normal. When I left the quarantine hotel, I just went to another hotel. But the very first time, last May, when I got out of the quarantine hotel and got to the office in Shenzhen, and I got to the subway, I almost wanted to hide myself, there were so many people. Imagine 14 days where you don't meet anybody, except for the guy who comes to check your body temperature every day. Then you get in the subway and you see the people crowding in.

Tao Cornier, Communications and Coordination Manager, ESOPP SAS

Based in France

Q: Why did you come to Chinaplas?

Cornier: I'm in charge of the company's booth design, so I must come over. Even with the pandemic, this is very important.

Q: How did you spend quarantine?

Cornier: They took good care of us at the hotel. All three meals a day were delivered exactly on time. Someone knocked on the door and you open it and there's your meal. The food was at least edible. I ate every meal.

My work was very busy so I felt like the time went by very quickly. The quarantine staff treated us very well. On the weekends, I worked on my own, listened to music. I brought a lot of books and was able to order from food delivery apps. I finished a very thick book, One Hundred Years of Solitude. I'd stretch and exercise. I watched two seasons of an Australian TV series.

Rex Hsieh, Overseas Sales Manager, Multitech Machinery Ltd.

Based in Taiwan

Q: Why did you come to Chinaplas?

Hsieh: This is the most important exhibition in the plastics world. We have others like NPE, but it was canceled. So we try to get every channel to get in contact with our client. That's why we chose to do 14 days [of] medical inspection.

At the exhibition we have 30 people, and 50 percent are from Hong Kong, Taiwan and India. Lots of people travel from Taiwan to mainland China because it is a big market. China is a different world compared to the rest of world. Even if it is closed, it is still a big market — a billion people. It's worth it to travel here to do quarantine, compared to traveling to Europe.

Q: How did you spend quarantine?

Hsieh: I did my quarantine in Xiamen. That was a nightmare. It was like really being in a jail. You can't order delivery food. Room service is limited. You have to launder your clothes by hand. Everything you have to do by hand.

You can't talk to anyone. Even if you just open the door, the supervisor is like, "What do you want to do?" I just want fresh air. It is so boring.

Work out, that's the only thing you can do. I did two workouts a day, 8-minute intense workout, try to fix my body. Nothing you can do. I watched a lot of Netflix. I watched Avengers seasons one to four. It took me four days. I slept well; I slept a long time. I went to bed at 10 p.m. every night. That's quite early for me. Outside 10 p.m. is just the day begins. It was so boring. I wouldn't recommend.

But 14 days was worth it. In the morning there were no people here, but look around, sometimes you get a lot of people, sometimes less. I expect tomorrow we'll get more people. Let's see.

If I go back to Taiwan, I also have to do quarantine. So I plan to stay here for the time being. I don't want to go back to the [quarantine] hotel again.