Smartphones, QR codes now indispensable in quarantined Beijing

Before leaving my hometown of Tianjin, where I spent my Chinese New Year holiday, I would have never imagined that my phone, some new apps, and QR codes – otherwise mainly used for mobile payments – would become even more essential tools back in Beijing.

I knew I would be greeted by quarantine regulations forcing me to stay in my apartment for 14 days upon arriving, due to the coronavirus outbreak that took the country by storm. I was prepared for some hurdles: loneliness, lack of fresh air, and my own bad cooking skills. However, I never expected the gate of my residential compound to be the biggest hurdle of them all.

Photo credit: Pixabay

All over Beijing, thousands of residential compound administrators and authorities have been busy ensuring people stayed indoors and obeyed their quarantines. The same happened in my compound.

After arriving, two people wearing guard uniforms, both wearing masks, were standing in front of the gate. One of these guards, a man in his 40s, was asking every person to present their entrance passes before getting inside the compound. It was around 12:30 PM, and the line was about three or four people long.

I walked up to the second guard, told him my story, and presented my key. I was just about to continue on my way until he stopped me.

“You have to provide some personal information before re-entering your apartment,” he said, as he pulled several documents from the pile. It looked like he had done the same thing hundreds of times already, including the standard speech to all returnees like myself.

The documents included two copies of a notification letter for the quarantine, indicating that I was required to undergo a 14-day quarantine as stipulated by government regulations, and two copies of a commitment letter, which I had to sign before continuing.

I filled out and signed all the documents. The guard took one copy and told me to keep another, which I would have to hang it on my apartment door, to let my neighbors know about my predicament.

Next, I scanned a QR code that took me to a WeChat mini-program called Jingxin Xiangzhu. The guard told me returnees from other places in China are required to give their address, arrival date, and health condition via this mini-program when checking in with their residential compounds, as per government regulations.

Launched on February 12 by the Beijing government, with technical support from Tencent’s cloud computing unit, the WeChat-based mini-program has received over 50 million views as of March 1. The platform is also accessible through the Alipay and Baidu apps.

In addition to a check-in tool, Jingxin Xiangzhu can be used by residential compounds to track the health of residents who are going through the 14-day lockdown. Returnees have to report their body temperature and any potential symptoms related to the epidemic via the mini-program on a daily basis. After finishing the 14 days, the app sends users a certification in the form of a QR code, which can be used to get approval for leaving the compound.

I thought I heard about this before, but it was still surprising to see the initiative actually rolled out and put in place. As a tech reporter for KrAsia, I had written daily articles in the past weeks on the technology being used to contain the coronavirus, but this was my first truly hands-on experience.

While I usually spend hours exploring different mini apps and other platforms for the sake of journalistic research, now was different: I just wanted the whole process to be over so I could get inside my home and rest after nearly two hours on the road.