When photographer Justin Jin’s father experienced a medical emergency in late November at home in China, Jin, who lives in Belgium, immediately booked a flight to be with him. But the COVID-19 pandemic turned the usually straightforward trip into a two-and-a-half-week ordeal.

In China, the virus is now well-controlled, so the government has set up a series of carefully choreographed precautionary steps to keep travelers from reintroducing the disease. Forty-eight hours before hopping on his flight, Jin had to take two types of COVID-19 tests—one for antibodies that involved a finger stick and a genetic test involving a nasal swab.

The results were uploaded to an app for the Chinese embassy to approve before he could board. On the flight, all