Traveling Hong Kong to and from France during COVID-19 Times

*Update as of August 16, 2021: Hong Kong Government has moved USA, France, and other 13 countries to the high-risk category, effective as of Friday August 20, 2021. Hence the 7 day quarantine for those who completed vaccination for more than 14 days prior to entering Hong Kong is NO LONGER APPLICABLE. The current requirements REQUIRE 21 DAYS OF QUARANTINE for those arriving from the 15 listed high-risk countries. See the SCMP article for more details: Coronavirus: Hong Kong moves US, Thailand, 13 others to list of ‘high-risk’ countries, extending quarantine times.

Hope this has been helpful to those of you planning to travel from or to Hong Kong. I’ve also vlogged the experience on my youtube channel:

**This blog post is based upon travel experience as of August 8, 2021

It’s been 3 days since I’ve been in mandatory hotel quarantine back in Hong Kong as I reflect back on the first international trip and thus, first plane ride in 2 years since the pandemic hit. And my goodness, does it still feel like a dream! If it wasn’t for all the video and photo evidence I have on my phone and camera, I would seriously doubt if this amazing trip even happened.

I recently took a two-and-a-half week trip to France from Hong Kong to attend a wedding as well as visit my husband’s family. I wanted to share my experience of traveling from Hong Kong to France and vice versa. The COVID-19 control measures in relation to the travel could not be more of polar extremes when comparing the two locations. Here’s what went down:

Departure: Hong Kong to Paris with Layover in Zurich

Our flight was a late night one around 11pm and we arrived with a taxi. Our taxi driver was a middle-aged Hong Kong man. As he got our luggage out of the trunk, he asked with a heavy Cantonese accent in English: “Are you coming back to Hong Kong?”

“Yes, we are just taking a holiday. Hong Kong is a beautiful city.” I responded.

To my surprise and sadness, the man responded with a sigh and shook his head, “not the same anymore lah, not the same.” This moment really stuck with me because indeed, out of all the past 2 years, this city has certainly experienced a lot.

As we approached the check-in area, I was surprised to find that although relatively empty, it had more people than I initially anticipated. There were a lot of student groups (I’m not sure if they are going on school group trips?? I doubt it under the government regulations but there were a lot of small groups of 6-12 high school and college looking students…) and the check-in line for our flight had about no less than 80 people waiting. I’m shooketh! I thought we would be on a completely empty flight!

A decent amount of people waiting to board the flight from Hong Kong to Zurich

We waited for about 30 minutes in line and an airline staff checked our paperwork before providing us with our boarding passes. Here’s all that we needed to present in order to board:

Hong Kong Side

Proof of completion of vaccination
Quarantine hotel reservation confirmation for return from designated list by Hong Kong Govt.
Positive antibody test conducted locally with authorized entity by Hong Kong Govt to obtain shortened 7-day quarantine eligibility

Swiss & French Side

Proof of completion of vaccination
Online self-declaration of COVID-19 negative with the French Government
Online form required by Swiss Government

While there were more people than I anticipated, the plane was still empty. Hence, Pierre and I got rows to ourselves and slept for almost the entire flight!

Shimmering lights of Hong Kong during the flight to Zurich

Arrival: Zurich Layover and Landing in Paris

I don’t know how else to describe this other than - it felt the same as pre-COVID times! Shocking! The customs lady at Zurich did ask for all our French self-declaration forms, Swiss Online Form, and proof of vaccination. I suppose she did check or tabbed something in her online system? But other than that she only asked the typical questions like why we are visiting and that was it.

And I suppose because France and Switzerland are all part of the Schengen Area where movement of people is free, the French authorities asked us absolutely nothing when we landed in Paris. In fact, we did not speak with any customs officials and simply walked out. The only person that asked us some questions was the baggage police. And he did not ask us anything COVID related. He asked if we carried cash over $10,000 or cigarettes, in which responded no. And that was it! Like that we were in a taxi 2 minutes later and roaming around Paris!

I don’t know if I am happy or scared about this? It’s convenient that we don’t have to quarantine but at the same time it feels too...relaxed?

Mont Blanc seen during flight from Hong Kong to Zurich

COVID-19 Related Experiences in France

Most people wore masks! One thing to my pleasant surprise is that most people in France were wearing masks when walking around on sidewalks. And if they weren’t, they definitely had a mask visibly around their arm. And in all crowded and public places such as train stations, airports, supermarkets, everyone - 100% of the people were wearing masks. I was under the impression from news and anecdotes from friends that French people just didn’t give a shit about COVID and everyone is walking around maskless! But that simply is not the case.

But not all are happy to vaccinate. A few days before our trip, President Macron of France announced some pretty extreme measures to incentivize the people to vaccinate. The new policy that impacted our trip and everyone in France the most is that unvaccinated people were subjected to a negative PCR or positive antigen test, which were only valid for 48-hours if they want to do anything related to the public including: going to bars and restaurants, museums, public gatherings etc.

As a result, I witnessed 2 protests: one in Le Puy en Velay and one in Paris against vaccination. In fact, I got trapped in the one in Paris, which happened around the Palais Garnier and Galarie Lafayette… There were at least 500 - 800 people at this rally, in which multiple streets were blocked and there were riot police with their combat outfits and air guns. I also witnessed streets where more than 30 on 30 riot police vans were parked, blocking entire streets. I had no idea what was going on at first and all I heard was loud chanting of “Liberte! Liberte!” Curious, I walked around until I accidently crossed a row of riot police in combat gear and ended up in the crowd of protestors with their signs and chants...luckily I managed to get out before it got violent!

Anti-COVID Vaccine protestors in the streets of Paris near Palais Garnier & Galarie Lafeyette

Riot Police in Paris during the Anti-COVID Vaccine Protest

Police vans blocking streets during the anti-covid vaccine protest in Paris

Additional antigen test and proof of vaccination to attend parties and go to public places. Because the new regulation was implemented while we were in France and the turnaround for digitally recognizing vaccines taken outside of France wasn’t immediately officially recognized, I had to take an antigen test that is valid for 48-hours to attend a wedding in Paris.

It was simple enough though, the tests were being offered in most pharmacies, so we simply had to call for an appointment and show up at the designated time. The kicker is - the antigen test is FREE FOR FRENCH CITIZENS! So Pierre didn’t have to pay. I had to dish out $25 euros for it though, which isn’t too bad. It was simply a nose poke swab thing and we got our results via email about 3-4 hours later. The result could either be used as is or uploaded on France’s official Anti-COVID app.

In addition to the antigen test, I did take my Hong Kong official vaccine documentation with me everywhere because I did end up doing quite a few touristy things, which required vaccine proof or the antigen test. All the museums and historical sites I visited requested for my papers but luckily, my Hong Kong vaccine documentation was enough and I was allowed to go to both Palais Garnier (Paris Opera) and La Chaise Dieu with no problems.

Departure: Toulouse to Frankfurt Layover and Back in Hong Kong

Coming back to Hong Kong was so much more difficult and painful than going to France! The entire journey was so intense at every step of the way in terms of the paperwork required and the amount of time we had to wait for the said requirements to process. Here’s what went down:

Toulouse to Frankfurt

This was the most painless part of the entire return back to Hong Kong. The flight attendant however, did take almost 20 minutes checking all our required paperwork - so embarrassingly, we did hold up the very long line.

There were surprisingly 2 more guys that were scheduled to be on our same exact flights to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, one of the guys did not take his PCR test from the designated lab by the Hong Kong Govt and they did not let him board the plane!

Required Paperwork for Returning to Hong Kong from Toulouse, France

Proof of completion of vaccination
Quarantine hotel reservation confirmation from designated list by Hong Kong Govt
Positive antibody test conducted locally with authorized entity by Hong Kong Govt to obtain shortened 7-day quarantine eligibility
Negative PCR test taken 72-hours prior to boarding the flight (pre-approved list by Hong Kong Govt) - check with the Consulate of the country you are traveling to. The French Consulate provided all the information needed to enter France and return to Hong Kong from France on their website.
Additional paper proof for PCR test with signature and chop from designated entity (we had to drive to a nearby town 20 minutes from where we were staying and waited in line for an hour due to the long lines to get a PCR test. It was free again for Pierre but $49 euros for me. We got the results about 5-6 hours afterwards via email. We did have to go back the next morning to get the official English paper with signature and chop required by Hong Kong Government though).
Digital self-declaration form required by Hong Kong government that generated person-specific QR code (very important!!!)
Self-declaration paper form for the German Government issued by airline staff

Frankfurt to Hong Kong

While the flight attendants checked for the same items from the list above, they were even more serious than the staff in Toulouse and thoroughly checked every single piece of paper to ensure we had everything in place. There were so many passengers on our flight that couldn’t figure out the digital QR code situation and it was a hot mess! Definitely stayed in that line and the gate for a long time before getting on the actual plane.

Arrival in Hong Kong

Holy shit guys. This was an experience that was out of this world. I felt like I was going through a zombiepocalypse! Compared to France, which basically didn’t have any checkin measures when we crossed the border, Hong Kong was on the other side of extremity.

As soon as we stepped off the plane, multiple airport staff completely decked out in hazmat suits, face shields, and masks guided us to the airport express into the lobby in which we were to be processed. There were so many different stations to check in each step of the Return to Hong Kong process. I must say though, it was all very well organized and each step of the customer journey was done so well and so clear!

Scanned our QR code and checked in with an airport/health department staff. We obtained a lanyard with a barcode and scanned our QR code that was obtained from the online form. This only took 5 minutes or so. I can’t remember if it was during this step or the next step in which they issued us a quarantine order form which had the date in which we can be “released from quarantine.” This step was very quick.
Checked in with another airport/health department staff to double check all of our required paperwork. Again, they checked all of our required paperwork. This took about 20 minutes for both of us as the cross checked on their systems and logged in our files. I think it was slightly faster for us because we are Hong Kong residents and all our paperwork, for example, the vaccination proof documents were issued from Hong Kong, which the staff are familiar with.
Escorted to take an onsite PCR Test. Yes, you read correctly! In addition to our 72-hour PCR test taken in France that was officially validated, our positive antibody test, and vaccine completion documents, we needed to take another PCR test upon entering Hong Kong at the airport! The test itself was quick and painless but the wait afterwards was quite long…
Waiting for PCR test results in designated socially distanced areas. I felt like I was taking the SATs or a college exam as we were spread out in formally gate areas with individual desks and chairs that are socially distanced. They were nice enough to provide us with water, sandwiches, and ritz crackers though. We waited for about 4.5 hours…
Escorted to the shuttle bus checkin area for transportation to mandatory quarantine hotel. I cannot express enough while painful, the entire process was so organized and clear. We spoke with another airport staff who cross-checked our shuttle and quarantine hotel (there are quite a few you can pick from, generated from the official Hong Kong Government List). He scanned our lanyard code, our digital QR code, and looked through our quarantine form. Then, we waited for no more than 5 minutes in our designated shuttle line to our quarantine hotel.
Shuttle bus to Quarantine Hotel. Self explanatory. Our shuttle bus took us to our hotel (Nina South Island) and a hotel next to our hotel (Ovolo), both located in Aberdeen. They sprayed our luggage with some sort of disinfectant before allowing us to board the shuttle bus.
Check in at Quarantine Hotel. After all of that, we finally arrived at our quarantine hotel! Luckily, we were one of the firsts so we didn’t have to wait that long in the lobby for check in, which took about 10 minutes as again, they have to check the quarantine form and all other documentation. Finally, we were allowed to go up to our rooms, in which we were to be quarantined for 7 days since we had completed the vaccination and also have the positive antibody test from an approved clinic.