Coronavirus - those in China, and general discussion

[suMMit]

That will partially be due to everyone leaving the cities for the holiday for hometowns. But also because people are being cautious. The big cities are always quiet at cny though

[suMMit]

8 hours ago, Tomsima said:

ive got to say, having this thread going is keeping me sane, it's a breath of fresh air from all the fear here

I can completely imagine, hang in there

[Shelley]

I know it not easy to ignore all the fear mongering but remember that a lie will be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.

[Tomsima]

Suizhou has been closed…it seems like the cities to the west of wuhan are all getting quarantined one by one. Im guessing Yichang will be shut in the coming few days, seems like its only a matter of time…

[mackie1402]

Took this picture on the way to IKEA this morning (doing my usually salmon run). 

 

To be fair, I would've been pretty similar last year, too. The roads are usually empty on New Year's Eve.

 

I think people living in China are really experience this whole coronavirus differently. While a lot of people will say about people are just lying and spreading rumours on WeChat, what a lot of people don't realise is, we aren't seeing messages, we are seeing videos and government reports. When you see a video of hundreds of people screaming and crying in a Wuhan hospital, because they all have a fever, and there aren't even enough doctor to check them all, then it's scary. When you see a government issued report that before the shut down of Wuhan, 19,000 people from there travelled to Hangzhou, then it's scary. A guy in my housing complex in Hangzhou turned himself in because he had been in contact with people from Wuhan who had the virus, but luckily he was cleared. 

 

If you're in China and want to get a clearer picture, you can contact your local districts office. They're all up to date and pretty honest about everything that's happening. 

 

I keep seeing a lot of 'it's all lies' and 'it's not a big deal' online, especially in places like Reddit, but for us living in China, we don't use papers and journalists to see what the situation is like, we get to see real people's videos and photos that they've posted on their moments. 

[ChTTay]

I’ve not seen any distressing videos etc posted on wechat or sent round as described above. Where are they? You getting them direct from people in Wuhan? 
 

I went on Reddit’s China threads a few times and decided it wasn’t for me. 
 

My friends still in Beijing tell me everyone is on edge. Schools are requesting travel and health information from parents/students/teachers. Some international schools have already delayed re-opening. 

[Tomsima]

So Yichang is being closed tomorrow according to a relative who just got a message from someone connected in the govt. Mackie1402 is right, it is really scary being here, the only message is basically 'everyone stay inside for as long as we can, and this'll blow over…but if you go outside it's 世界末日 out there' And basically everyone I know here is from or works in Wuhan.

[roddy]

There’s a 99.99% chance that for any given individual, this is just an interesting story they’ll tell in six months. 

[Tomsima]

thought this was quite funny - a village nearby us has just been 'shut off', everyone was asking how you shut off a little village. Check out how theyve guaranteed people from leaving:

 

[Jan Finster]

The full impact will also depend on how long the quarantine will last and when schools/universities will restart. My Chinese friend said there are at least 80 schools and universities in Wuhan and she expects the students to be off for 1-2 months. Can you catch up afterwards? Do you lose a year?

[suMMit]

That kind of thing is the smallest of concerns

[roddy]

They'll give them self-study tasks, or put the lecturers in front of a webcam, or have catch-up classes. It might cause issues for people who have to complete lab work or something, but the vast majority of students won't be particularly affected. 

[Flickserve]

1 hour ago, Jan Finster said:

. My Chinese friend said there are at least 80 schools and universities in Wuhan and she expects the students to be off for 1-2 months. Can you catch up afterwards? Do you lose a year?

Academics can go online. 
 

it has been done in HK recently in secondary schools and in Universities. 

[Jim]

They had the black death again in Inner Mongolia a couple of months ago and think a couple of them showed symptoms after coming to Beijing, so could be worse

[Tomsima]

Well here it is folks: Yichang has been shut, Zhijiang has been shut. In fact it appears that every road, train station and airport out of Hubei accessible from where we are is now closed. So not going to be able to make the flight out from Chongqing by the looks of things. Seems I'm in this for the long haul...

 

on the plus side my fangyan is gonna get a lot of practice. Not even joking, this year is the first year Ive ever been able to hold conversations with my parents in law (was shocked when we got in last week and I could somehow...understand what they were saying! My wife speaks in fangyan at home all the time when were in the UK, and it has clearly had some deeper passive effect on my listening abilities). Its honestly the best feeling to be able to keep up with jokes in the local dialect, feel like I'm finally a part of the family.

 

 

[大块头]

1 minute ago, Tomsima said:

on the plus side my fangyan is gonna get a lot of practice

 

There's always a silver lining. 

 

Were you able to get a copy of that 3SFM book before things started to close down?

[roddy]

Start making "This foreigner got stuck with his in-laws in a tiny Chinese village because of the coronavirus" videos. Buzzfeed'll lap them up.

[Tomsima]

24 minutes ago, 大块头 said:

Were you able to get a copy of that 3SFM book before things started to close down?

haha nope, i got the book sent to a friends house before coming over. Their house is just down the road, but they're currently in another village for new years and not allowed back now ?

[suMMit]

@Tomsima I have a 外国人 colleague stuck in Wuhan市，and my Chinese teacher is also in Hubei

[Shelley]

Just heard on the BBC news- 

 

China coronavirus: UK tracing up to 2,000 Wuhan visitors

 

They are trying to find any travelers who came to the UK in the last 2 weeks.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51232163