Health forms out the window

All ye lucky yuletide souls whose employer's lack of the Scrooge gene has enabled ye to escape Shanghai over the Xmas break, rejoice! Those of you flying back into China after January 1 no longer need to fill in that pesky health declaration form. Although Shanghaiist kind of enjoyed the pre-landing self-diagnosis ritual. Just how many avian flu carrying fowl had we fraternized with over the past month? And could the hail of sputum from the guy sitting next to us develop into full-blown SARS? These questions, along with which fellow passenger to scrounge a pen off, took our thoughts away from the strip of tarmac hurtling at horrific speed towards our plunging aircraft. According to the national quarantine watchdog and civil aviation regulator (quoted in The Guardian), "The move aims to simplify immigration procedures and improve efficiency." Dunno how this would have any affect on queues, seeing as people fill out the forms in-flight, though apparently from from February 1, people with no goods to declare won't have to fill in customs forms when leaving or arriving in China, which may speed things up slightly, judging from the confusion over said forms we've witnessed at Pudong International.