I have been a Tesla Model X owner for about three years, and since the first day I got it I have had a desire to have a trip across China with it. I never made it, most of the reasons are the busy team work that I won’t have enough consecutive free time for a long trip, though my own programming work is definitely remote friendly. Another small obstacle is that charging stations are not so enough like today, and the 90D model is only capable of about 350KM.

Our team changed to fully remote last December, and there are plenty of charging stations built in three years, both by Tesla and the State Grid Corporation of China, and most importantly I got a Model 3 last month, which is said to be able to last about 560KM with a single charge. So it’s the time, and I stepped down the pedal for a trip alongside the east China.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing has very strict restrictions in almost everywhere. At malls, office buildings, and residential areas, people need to show their green healthy code and pass the body temperature detection before entrance. Our first stop is Weifang, a small city, and we were a bit shocked that almost nobody wears masks, no to mention those complicated detections, we thought perhaps the city is too small. Then all following bigger cities, Qingdao, Hangzhou and even Shanghai, shocked us that nobody wears masks, neither do they check healthy code. No wonder people say Beijing is tough to live.

I’m amazed by Model 3’s range, it’s a hot summer, and we have the A/C on 23 °C all the time, the car still lasts for 500KM at an average 120KM/h speed. There are at least one Tesla Supercharger almost at every city alongside the highway, and most of the service center have charging stations built by State Grid, though most of them are broken.

As a programmer, it’s pretty feasible to work during a trip, I have fixed some critical issues which distressed me for a long time. Communications may not be so synchronous though, but it is still OK for a remote team.

Good.