Tim Fan was so close to getting home. For the first time since before the pandemic, he was on a plane to China, looking forward to seeing his family and celebrating his recent graduation from a college in Washington state.
But halfway into the 12-hour flight from Seattle to Shanghai in late December, the Delta Air Lines plane made a sudden U-turn back to the United States. The airline cited burdensome new disinfection procedures at the airport in Shanghai, which Chinese officials disputed.
Almost two months later, Fan is still in Seattle, his journey home hindered by a lack of flights, exorbitant ticket prices and his own Covid-19 infection. Chinese rules prevent him from entering the country until well after he is recovered.
While he waits, he is paying $2,400 a month for an Airbnb, four times more than his rent while in school. This month he spent the Lunar New Year, China’s most important holiday, separated from his family in Shenzhen.
“My heart is numb and has no feeling,” said Fan, 22. “I’ve reached my lowest in terms of luck.”
Two years into the pandemic, as much of the world is easing restrictions, students like Fan still face great difficulty in traveling home to China. The country’s strict “zero-Covid” strategy includes closing its borders to almost all foreigners, but it creates obstacles for Chinese nationals as well.
Chief among them is the paltry number of flights. The number of international flights to China is down to 200 a week, 2.2 percent of pre-pandemic levels, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said last year.
That is partly because China has a policy of suspending both domestic and foreign airlines from certain routes for up to four weeks if too many passengers test positive for the virus upon arrival. In recent weeks, China has suspended 44 inbound flights operated by U.S. carriers, prompting U.S. officials to suspend the same number of China-bound flights run by…