Running from Coronavirus (Part 3)

I left China on the 31st of January, early afternoon; on a flight from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport to Hong Kong, and then a red-eye to Brisbane. It was a Friday, and the previous week of the New Year "holiday" had been a non-stop anxiety, news, and conversation fest where the question of to-stay-or-to-go was the only focus. At this point in the History of the Coronavirus, there was information out there about how easily it was contracted and via what means (sneezes and coughs, handshakes, elevator buttons, door handles, close talkers, waiters, narrow hallways, pets, pangolins, and cruise ships) but there was still a lot we didn't know about the severity of the illness. More than the danger itself, however, was the danger of what might happen if say, a suspected case was discovered in my apartment building and if the authorities would then lock me indoors. Or worse, if I were to fail a temperature check and suddenly be taken to a hospital and locked in a room with sixty other people who failed temperature checks, one of whom actually had the virus and then soon, we'd all have it. Of course these were just imaginary scenarios, of which I had no evidence that any of that would happen. But knowing the power of the State there and the lockdown on Wuhan, the question was when Kunshan was going to be locked down as well, and when that happened, what would life be like and for how long?

Thus, the fear of the government and getting stuck in my apartment was the primary driver of my anxiety that week, rightly or wrongly. However, I was not alone; in these thoughts or in folks to share these thoughts with. My friends Jo and Dave, who lived in a housing complex next to mine were also around for the week long break. After all the breaking news after that first weekend of the break, I invited them over for American style pancakes and sausages (which I only learned were American style after Jo and Dave, who were Australian, told me) on Monday of that week. We ate and chatted and strategized possible scenarios, our Wechat informed understanding of the science, and what to do. All the while, CGTN, the English language Chinese news network who in February of this year had been declared a 'foreign mission' by the US government (which means that they were considered an agency controlled by Beijing, e.g. propaganda) played in the background.

CGTN, January 27th

At that point, the 27th of January, Coronavirus had been acknowledged by President Xi but was still not the only news to report. We chatted, looked out the window, digested, and when the news would cut to Wuhan we'd tune back in. I was desperate for some on the ground English language news coverage of the virus and the CGTN folks provided that. Otherwise, there was a lingering uncertaintly, at least for me, that this was entirely real. Wechat, emails from school, and the handful of stories being run everyday in The Times were not enough. I needed something more corporate to know for sure that this was real. Desperate for more information.

The next day there was a brief discussion on Wechat about some confusion between what the students still on campus had been told by the administration and what student services had said. Students were told that if they were going to leave campus, that they would need to by the 31st of January, Friday of that week. After which campus would be totally locked down and noone would be able to get on or off. The numbers of students still on campus were small, but there were international students who didn't plan to go home for the break and now, students from Wuhan and Hubei province who couldn't get home due to the travel restrictions. Wondering why the 31st was the choosen, I wrote a few wechat messages and learned that this was the day the folks in the administration, who had probably been in touch with government officials, had decided was the day before flight restrictions would start going into place. I went over to Dave and Jo's place on Wednesday morning with my computer, and we all booked tickets to Australia. Sure enough, on the day we arrived in Australia, 6:30 AM on the morning of February 1st, travel restrictions were issued for Australia banning all flights from China, including Hong Kong. Buying a swimming suit at a surf shop in Coolangatta later that morning, the guy asked me what I had been up to, a beautiful day on the beach. I told him that I had just arrived from Hong Kong.