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Hong Kong residents stranded in Britain due to Covid-19 travel ban struggle over six-week journey home Ethan Paul ethan.paul@scmp.com Those planning to return to Hong Kong from Britain must spend three weeks in a another country before arriving in the city, where they will have to spend another three weeks in quarantine at a hotel. Photo: Reuters
Hong Kong s ban on travellers from Britain has left hundreds of city residents stranded and facing a costly six-week journey if they want to get back anytime soon.
Those desperate to return must spend three weeks in a country outside Britain before continuing to Hong Kong, where they will have to spend another three weeks in quarantine at a hotel.
A traveller’s ‘Marco Polo’ moment in Xinjiang, China, in search of a southern route skirting the Taklamakan Desert The Taklamakan Desert in China s Xinjiang province. Photo: Shutterstock
The rim of Xinjiang s Taklamakan Desert is probably one of the world s most difficult places to play I Spy: t for telegraph pole , d for dune , and s for sand , stones , or sky , all in shades of khaki. There s little else to be seen.
Wind-blown dunes snuggle up to the road and threaten to engulf it, and on both sides the flat, toneless scrub and sand seem limitless. This is everyone s idea of a desert, with water mirages and dust devils that seem to follow the bus. Occasional slight curves in the road are a welcome novelty.
A Chinese soldier who accidentally crossed the contested border in the Himalayas is waiting to be handed over by the Indian army, both sides said on Saturday. Tensions escalated along the frontier in the Indian region of Ladakh last year with the two sides involved in a fatal clash in June - the deadliest such incident in decades. People's Liberation Army Daily, the official news platform of the Chinese army, confirmed the incident hours after.