Coronavirus - those in China, and general discussion

[Tomsima]

23 minutes ago, roddy said:

I wonder if they’ll just send an army truck around to pick you all up at some point.

finally I can live out my 抗日 fantasies

[StChris]

3 hours ago, vellocet said:

And in today's news, I wanted to go out today and spend the day on my ebike, riding around town, taking photos, videos, and generally being outside the house.  I wake up and find that my wife has already used the permission slip to exit the apartment complex and buy water.  Now I'm stuck in here until Friday.

 

1. We can buy water from two shops inside the complex.  

 

2. We already have water.

 

#justcoronavirusthings

 

Haha, with families and couples suddenly forced to spend a lot more time together than they are used to, I'm sure China will see a spike in both births and divorces in the coming months (just a general comment, not talking about your personal situation)

 

The situation in Harbin escalated a notch overnight, and I'd say we're at DEFCON 3 now. Apparently, there have been a few infections around my area (within 1-2 km), so the situation feels a lot closer to home, rather than just being something on the news. It also seems that many residential apartment complexes have begun requiring permission slips in order to leave, including mine:

 

 

I used one of the three slips issued to me for this week to go to the local supermarket to stock up. I pretty much bought a weeks worth of supplies, so I suppose I could now sell the other two slips on the (probably already thriving) exit slip black market.

 

Surprisingly, the two guys who run a nut and seed street stall just outside the supermarket decided to open today. Just as I was walking past and thinking about whether or not to buy something, one of the men let out a massive sneeze. While I appreciated the effort he made to turn his head to face slightly back over his shoulder as he did it, it was far from the recommended "sneeze into the inner elbow" technique, and I decided to carry on walking.

 

 

At the entrance to the shopping mall was a man taking everyone's temperature. He said something to me as he was aiming the small thermometer gun at my wrist, but I was daydreaming and didn't hear what he said, so I just smiled and asked ”正常吗？“, to which he replied ”零“ and showed me the result. He had a slightly confused look on his face, as if unsure as to whether those strange 老外 just naturally had a much lower body temperature to normal folk, and that maybe he should just let me pass anyway. Fortunately, I already had already experienced this issue a couple of days before and therefore knew what to do. I said to him “零？怎么可能， 我还没死呢！” and pulled my jumper and jacket down a bit from my neck so that he could take the measure again, this time around my collar bone area. This time I got a ”正常“ reading, and could continue on downstairs to the supermarket.

 

Everyone seems pretty calm around here, in spite of the new measures. Even the people taking temperatures and controlling the flow of people are generally in good humour. The only nervousness I've encountered was when I was walking around my 小区 a little earlier today. My apartment area is criss-crossed with walking paths, and as I was walking towards a small crossroads, a woman a little ahead and to my right suddenly shouted “别动！”. As I looked to my left I could see who she was telling to stop - a 10/11 year old boy who had seemingly fallen behind his parents at the other side. The boy stood perfectly still with a scared expression on his face, as if he had just been told by Dr Grant to freeze so that a nearby T-Rex wouldn't be able to see him. I carried on walking and the boy ran to join his parents as soon as I had passed the little cross-section.

 

This afternoon I decided to take a leaf out of @abcdefg's book and actually try my hand at making some Chinese food. I generally like cooking, but the food is so cheap that I tend to eat out most days, and when I do cook at home I usually make western food. I decided to make a Dongbei favourite of mine, 锅包肉, but realised when I go home that I had forgotten to buy any Chinese onion. It's at this point that I had to decide whether or not buying it would be worth using one of my two remaining exit permission slips for (#justcoronavirusthings, as @vellocet might say). I decided that I could make do with the western onion already in my fridge instead.

 

The dish turned out ok, but I couldn't quite get the water to 淀粉 ratio right, so the batter didn't turn out as well as it could have. I was satisfied how the sauce turned out though (a delicate balance between the sugar, vinegar, ginger and onion). Oh well, I'm going to have plenty of time to perfect the recipe over the coming days anyway.

 

 

[Balthazar]

1 hour ago, Balthazar said:

Yep, thankfully we didn't face any issues. Arrived according to schedule on Sunday evening.

 

Definitely off topic, but on the plane ride from Shanghai to Helsinki I felt in the mood for a sci-fi/disaster film. Only one of the available films fit the bill, 最后的日出/"Last Sunrise" (basic plot: the sun disappears, not good for our planet). My mind was blown when, in the midst of chaos, looting and societal collapse, a product placement for Corona Extra appeared.

 

(The film itself was a big disappointment, by the way.)

[Jim]

We've not had the one in one out thing here yet but our eldest has just got back from her grandparents where she spent New Year and a condition of that was we agreed to self-quarantine for a fortnight. The village shop is delivering, fortunately.

[Dawei3]

7 hours ago, StChris said:

one of the men let out a massive sneeze

This is reason why masks can be helpful.  i.e., The virus is unlikely to be wafting in the air when you take a walk in the park, but it can help when someone sneezes.

 

StChris - Thank you for your wonderful story!!!  The details you gave brought the story to life, i.e., mentioning the good humor of the temperature takers, the street stall and other things helped us (outside of China) get a sense of the situation.  The pictures added much too.  

 

7 hours ago, StChris said:

“零？怎么可能， 我还没死呢！”

It's good you got a reading the 2nd time, otherwise it might be thought you were a zombie (but I realize that's from another movie....) 哈哈 (gallows humor).

 

7 hours ago, StChris said:

births and divorces in the coming

Toastmasters speaking clubs in China started on-line meetings.  Normally clubs there have face-to-face meetings once/week.  However in a recent on-line meeting, a friend said a participant suggested they do on-line meetings every other day.  He said "that way we won't need to talk to our families."  (they all want a break from talking with the same people everyday).  

 

  

 

[Dawei3]

For a highly credible up-to-date US perspective from the  Centers for Disease Control:  https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6905e1.htm 

One conclusion:  "It is unclear how this virus will impact the U.S. over time.  For the general population, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus at the current time, the immediate health risk from 2019-nCoV is considered low."

 

I respect CDC highly.  

 

A different article I read mentioned Africa as a potential source for the start of a pandemic, i.e., if it starts spreading there from Chinese returnees, most African countries have little infrastructure to stop it.  

 

 

[suMMit]

17 hours ago, vellocet said:

And in today's news, I wanted to go out today and spend the day on my ebike, riding around town, taking photos, videos, and generally being outside the house.  I wake up and find that my wife has already used the permission slip to exit the apartment complex and buy water.  Now I'm stuck in here until Friday.

 

1. We can buy water from two shops inside the complex.  

 

2. We already have water.

 

#justcoronavirusthings

 

Hmmm, my husband wants to go out on his bike, ride around town, take photos, videos and generally be outside in our virus stricken city. He might even chat with someone. Hmmm, if I go buy some water, use the permission slip, he'll be stuck inside - safe. We can always use water.

 

#justchinesewiveswayofthinking

[vellocet]

I didn't tell her I was planning on doing that.  I think she just liked the new capability and wanted to use it.  

[TheWind]

are all cities & communities implementing this "exit once per day" policy? They just started this with our community.  

 

I think it's a bit extreme, especially since the water company has closed down too

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

1 hour ago, TheWind said:

are all cities & communities implementing this "exit once per day" policy? They just started this with our community.  

 

Doesn't seem to be in place in Beijing as far as I can see. I don't know it's a local government policy or just 保安 implementing there own measures. 

 

 

[ChTTay]

5 hours ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

Doesn't seem to be in place in Beijing as far as I can see. I don't know it's a local government policy or just 保安 implementing there own measures. 

Can also confirm not in place here yet. However, our neighbouring apartment complex just implemented a name badge system for those living in the community. If you don’t have a badge (and this don’t live there) you can’t come inside. Temperature checks the same for those entering. 
 

My apartment has stopped all DiDi, kuaidi, Waimai drivers coming in. 

[suMMit]

Was talking to my sister in the US, telling her about the UK saying Brits should leave China and the American Evac flights from Wuhan. Her reply: "I think they should just stay in China, we don't want them, don't bring the disease here". Lol, thats from a very typical American.

[roddy]

Virgin Atlantic's suspended Heathrow-Shanghai flights out to the end of March, while Saudi Arabia is saying that even it's own nationals can't come in if they've been to China. US banning foreign nationals who've been to China, so that's another route out closed off.

[889]

"Lol, thats from a very typical American."

 

Mindless Yank bashing, Brit bashing, Aussie bashing etc. is about as out of place and out of time as could be.

[Jan Finster]

15 minutes ago, suMMit said:

Was talking to my sister in the US, telling her about the UK saying Brits should leave China and the American Evac flights from Wuhan. Her reply: "I think they should just stay in China, we don't want them, don't bring the disease here". Lol, thats from a very typical American.

 

To me this is perfectly understandable. Imagine they would evacuate people from an Ebola epidemic and bring them back to the city you live in. I would assume, you would feel somewhat uncomfortable (?) Even though this is not Ebola, everyone has a different threshold of concern/fear...

[roddy]

The problem with reporting something stupid that someone said, is that then we end up discussing something stupid. 

[DavyJonesLocker]

we have seen brexit happen, we will have no more of those Johnny foreigners and and their foreigner viruses. Only native old fashioned English Viruses for us thank you very much!!

[889]

As to people who "don't want the disease here," I don't think we've mentioned yet that Taiwan is barring entry to all foreigners who've recently been in China, including Hong Kong and Macau. (Those using HK/Macau travel documents can enter, but will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.) This of course in addition to Hong Kong's decision to impose a 14-day quarantine on anyone entering from the Mainland, including HK residents.

[Guest realmayo]

I don't know how representative they are, but people I know in China seem devastated by the death of the whistle-blower doctor tonight.

 

Also, anyone else following Caixin's English language reporting? I found this more detailed than what I've read elsewhere: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-02-06/reporters-notebook-we-interview-front-line-coronavirus-doctor-101512020.html

 

[zander1]

Yeah Realmayo it’s the same for me, I’ve never seen such anger/despair even from my apolitical friends.