My first trip back to the mainland since the Covid-19 pandemic began was an eye-opening experience of how China’s zero-Covid policy works . Unless you come from a “low-risk” area, you will need to take a swab test within 48 hours of your time of departure. International flights into the country are limited to Shanghai and a handful of other cities. Once you land and clear customs, you will be ushered to a testing station at the airport and administered a very deep nasal and throat swab test. A special coach takes you to a designated quarantine hotel, which is assigned depending on your place of abode. The quarantine hotels are generally about three stars ranging from 250-450 yuan (US$39-70) a night. Medical workers in full personal protective gear will administer four more swab tests and twice-daily temperature checks during your stay. Orders for meals, bottled water or sanitary equipment are made through a WeChat chat room with the hotel staff and guests. Meal quality varies between hotels, but you can always order takeaway. China’s highly developed e-commerce means you can have medicine, computer cables or pretty much anything delivered to your door. Next comes a week of home quarantine. Within hours of leaving the quarantine hotel, you will be contacted by your neighbourhood community officer, who will check up on you at your home (or hotel) and ask you to sign an undertaking letter, promising not to leave your home or hotel unless “necessary”. This officer will ask you for daily body temperature readings. In shopping malls and buildings, redundant entrances are shut off and the remaining essential entrances are attended to by security guards (who check your health code) and temperature monitoring devices. If there is community spread, the whole block will be locked down, usually for about 14 days. If someone comes in close contact with a person who tests positive, the whole block could be placed under lockdown for 48 hours until mass testing results come out. However well designed, no system is without flaws – some shopping malls don’t really bother checking customers’ health codes. Most street-side restaurants only check your temperature but not your health code. Live with Covid-19 or zero tolerance? World needs standard approach China’s zero-Covid policy does come with very significant costs: millions of dedicated personnel to enforce the rules, billions of dollars spent on equipment, and business opportunities and personal relationships lost because of travel restrictions . However, the policy has allowed China to keep its Covid-19 figures down. How do you weigh the importance of human lives, personal freedom and economic development? Personally, having almost died from a similar illness, I wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through the same trauma. Pan Wing-tat, Sheung Wan