Leaving China – An (Honest) Diary

30 January 2020 – Morning

The school closed about a week ago, since the situation with the Wuhan Virus got out of hand. Every morning while reading the news I feel like someone punched me in the stomach. I button up my shirt while I look outside my window. A beautiful view of the surroundings: round, limestone mountains, but also empty streets and a deserted schoolyard. Until a week ago, I would hear kids screaming when waking up every morning.

As uncrowded as the streets are, as lonely I am starting to feel during the day, I sit by myself in an empty room while I receive my Chinese lessons online - even though my teacher sits right behind a wall in the room next-door. Almost all the shops are closed. There is no life in the previously busy streets. Thankfully a few students have stayed. We meet twice a day for meals. This also leaves more time to drink tea at any time of the day with John, my neighbour and friend.

Sharing short stories on social media and with friends offers me some kind of a valve to comment on the situation of this health crisis. But to regularly reassure myself that I am fine and receiving well-meant tips from outside China is also adding weight to a soul already heavy to carry.

31 January 2020 – Evening

How to stay sane in a situation of general panic. It takes a lot of critical research and swimming against the stream to avoid getting panicked. Maybe life has given me some of the tools to handle it. Currently I am only thinking of leaving if it is generally advised not to travel to China – mainly to not lose my insurance and to avoid unnecessary risks, such as not being able to leave. Until then I will button up my shirt every morning, take my online classes and try to not lose the cool.

1 February 2020 – Morning

Today was the first time my mood had shifted into frustration. I am having stomach aches. An increasing number of countries are closing their borders to Mainland China and flying into the West has become very expensive. Being most of the time in my room all by myself and trying to keep going with six hours of classes a day feels like I am scratching my heart hollow. I am not sure any more if I can stay for more than a week from now.

1 February 2020 – Evening

Even though staying creates a certain path dependency to stay until the end, I have decided tonight to leave China next week Thursday. Travel restrictions might further tighten in the upcoming weeks. I have booked a flight to Taiwan and I am hoping my standard of living is going to improve – compared to my life here in a ghost town. I am a bit disappointed that I have to leave early, also as we are now a good group of students looking out for each other. It is probably for the best. Have I already stayed for too long?

3 February 2020 – Morning

Heads up – I am still alive. Taiwan is closing its borders to Chinese citizens. My flight is still 3 days away and it is starting to worry me that I might not make it in time to Taiwan. Apart from that my mood this morning is quite good – which helps to digest the whole situation.

4 February 2020 – Morning

After a good night’s sleep, I turned on my computer to this news: Hong Kong reports its first fatality of the new virus. This makes it more likely that they would close their border to China soon. I am scared that this might kill my ‘escape’ plans through Hong Kong to Taipei.

Two and a half days to go before my flight. I am very nervous.

5 February 2020 – Evening

My flight is less than a day away. Hong Kong has announced to quarantine all passengers coming from Mainland China from Saturday morning onwards. Yet another close call for me after the Taiwanese travel ban. Additionally, Cathay Pacific (my carrier for tomorrow’s flight) is cancelling almost all flights into Mainland China in the upcoming days. I am now even more worried that I might not be able to leave China and hope my flights don’t get cancelled.

Taiwanese border to be closed.
Hong Kong border to be closed.
Flight’s to be cancelled. 
My fingers tightly crossed.

5 February 2020 – Late Evening

One of my flights has just been cancelled. Alternative routes out of China are very expensive and not covered by my insurance. As it starts to feel like one out of many decision-making exercises during my officers’ training in the army, I am suddenly very concentrated and the cool is slowly coming back.

5 February 2020 – Night

After two hours of phone calls and a few clicks away from booking a flight to Kuala Lumpur, I have managed to get onto a different flight to Taiwan tomorrow evening. Thankfully, the woman from my travel insurance’s hotline kept me from making some planning mistakes by providing additional information, her invaluable experience as well as by curbing my enthusiasm. I am flying to Taiwan!

6 February 2020 – Before Noon

There are still so many things which could go wrong and I am nervous to the extent that I start feeling like throwing up. Maybe I am not as tough as I had hoped to be. However, the situation could be much worse. I have relatively stable internet, my VPN is functioning, I will have food waiting for me for lunch and I have a taxi booked, which will bring me to the nearby airport.

Yesterday night’s flight cancellation made me worry much more than before. The struggle is real.

6 February 2020 – Noon

I have said goodbye to my fellow students and I am sitting in the taxi to the airport. One thing I had not thought about was that my negative excitement must have slightly driven my body temperature up. The standard infrared thermometer at school measured 37.5 °C. It was officially communicated that anyone who is checked with 37.3 °C or above when entering Guilin airport will be quarantined. I am now rinsing water over my dome with a bottle – to literally keep my head cool.

6 February 2020 evening – After Landing in Hong Kong

The moment I am recording this audio note I am barely able to finish a few sentences.

Earlier, after my long awaited boarding I was sitting in the plane like a little boy on his first flight. Gazing out of the window while talking to myself in a low voice ’Oh my, I made it, I made it.’ Emotions had overcome me. Outside I was finding a deserted airport. It was raining. Soon after, we were climbing through the cloudy sky. Hardly anyone was saying a word - entire families were just sitting next to eachot. All I could observe were faces covered in masks with empty stare either out into the light of the sun or onto the back of the seat in front of them. We had experienced turbulence during the whole trip, which I had barely noticed, so caught up in the moment.

I made it to Hong Kong. With a feeling of pride, I am announcing this to my family and close friends while still being overwhelmed with happiness. I am realising only how much emotions this whole experience had cost me. The outbreak of the Virus was laying heavier on my soul than I wanted to admit.

7 February 2020 – After Midnight

Two weeks after the Virus got out of hand and just two hours before Taiwan will be closing its borders, I have successfully left China. After at least 5 body-temperature checks, many paper questionnaires on my recent travel history, two flights, two border crossings and a flood of emotions, I am now looking at the Taiwanese stamp in my passport. I have no feelings left, but being exhausted.

I made it to Taiwan!

A Perspective on a Nationwide Panic - The 2019-nCoV

I must be living in a disaster zone - governments are evacuating citizens, some family and friends are urging me to leave and the streets are deserted.

At the moment of writing of this short opinion piece, about 4,500 cases had been reported with 106 fatal outcomes. The vast majority of cases had been linked to direct contact (human to human) with infected people from Hubei Province (bear in mind that much less attention is given to hygiene in China, in public places, food preparation and to personal hygiene such as nose picking, spitting, open meat and vegetable markets etc.). Hubei Province counts 58.5 Million residents  – which corresponds to a little less than Italy. Now, in the current flu season 2,768,000 cases have been reported across Italy with a death toll of 240 so far (The Local it, 23.01.2020). The 2019-nCoV is from the same family of viruses as the common cold. Have you heard of foreign citizens being evacuated from Italy?

If you have the flu, you are contagious from 1 day before you have any symptoms. Sound’s familiar from the headlines? ‘Up to 650,000 people die of respiratory diseases linked to seasonal flu each year’ worldwide (WHO, 14.12.2017).

Now, I don’t intend to banalise the present situation here in China – as many facts are still unknown and the current virus appears more fatal. International exchange of information, open communication and readiness to treat the sick as well as protecting the most vulnerable is very important. However, this might offer some perspective, in a moment where fear is spreading the fastest.

Life in the streets of many cities has virtually stopped. A good number of small communities across the country have reportedly constructed barricades to isolate their towns. Superstition, health obsession, rumours, videos of angry, helpless and crying nurses from Wuhan shared widely over Chinese social media, overreaction, as well as uncritical thinking and lack of basic understanding on how viruses spread, have created an ecosystem of fear which is causing serious headaches.

Keep calm, wash your hands after being in public or after direct contact with other individuals. Cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing. Don’t touch your face.

Mounting Concern Over A Spreading Virus - An Unexpected Cultural Experience.

Virus, masks, unwashed hands, and too much panic. A perspective as the Wuhan Novel Coronavirus is spreading throughout China.

I am back in China.

Originally, I have come here only for Chinese language classes. As assumed, it would be very difficult to get my Mandarin knowledge kickstarted. The strategy: intensive courses - six hours a day, five days a week. The outcome is - how to put this - rather interesting. I can only use a handful of sentences and most of these only in a very limited capacity as I am then not yet capable of understanding their replies. So either they immediately get what I stuttered, or they have me staring into the shop or restaurant smiling while taking out my phone to use a technology-based alternative to speaking. My performance in class feels no different. My teachers have all been giving their best to teach me how to structure sentences and use words that more and more sound all the same to my ears. Still, I am mostly just staring onto the whiteboard and replying 我不知道 (I don’t understand) or 我忘了 (I forgot). It is somehow as I had expected, nevertheless I start feeling bad for my teachers . We all need to continue to have some patience.

Happy Chinese New Year - a special experience.

Since I have come here, I could read every now and then about a new virus spreading, originating in central China. Now, a few weeks later, rumours have the first case reported in the town I am living in.

What to believe and how much worrying is healthy?

It has been three days since the news has rapidly caught up with reality. There had been barely any cases reported outside of Wuhan until then and only a few students I know sounded seriously worried about getting sick.

Well, that has changed. Yesterday was Lunar New Year’s Eve and people have travelled all over the country to meet their loved ones. An impressive logistical effort with a major side effect - the virus has also travelled on high-speed rail and it started to spread. From about 500 cases, there are now way over a thousand reported cases with many more to come.

While I had not been able to find much information on how the virus spreads, I begin to observe how fear circulates. Unsurprisingly, I have learned about a particular conspiracy theory I find particularly interesting. The USA under Donald Trump experimenting on biological warfare in China, his declared enemy. Now, as tempting as this sounds, this would backfire terribly with about 3 million Chinese visitors to the US each year, almost immediately infecting most major American cities.

Visibly the fear has spread around many individuals’ mouths. Now the vast majority is wearing surgical masks in public. While they do not prevent inhalation of airborne germs and viruses, they have still become quite symbolic. Collective behaviour is not collective thinking. On occasional toilet visits soap seemed only occasionally used, hand sanitiser was rarely seen, but nose picking and reaching into the mouth with bare hands were a frequent sight. 

The growing fear has also reached our school. Before our common CNY dinner, we were all asked to wear a mask to enter the restaurant - including me. Half of our CNY activities were cancelled and we are as of today discouraged from going outside at all.

After sitting and studying all day in the local Starbucks - to only heated, dry and comfortable coffee place I could find - I am now utterly exhausted in bed, writing. Surprisingly, the slight panic, the constant sight of face masks, nervous staff disinfecting, me rubbing my hands in sanitiser and thinking of The Virus each and every time someone coughed, has got to me.

I am in China. I hear the rain outside my window and dozens of questions in my head. I am not wearing a mask.