COVID19 City Lockdown Experience: Shijiazhuang, China

 

                                                                            cr. Reuters

Gloomy sky. Fierce wind. Fallen leaves floating on the empty street. The city seems to have pressed the pause button. There is no bustling crowd and normal traffic. It even seems like the city was just created in the past few minutes… This is not an abandoned island. This is my hometown — Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China — where the COVID19 massively broke out for a second time in my country this winter, just before the arrival of Chinese New Year. Here is a video you can relate to:

I came back to my city, Shijiazhuang, last year while the first round of the pandemic fiercely raged on. The city is located in Hebei province, near Beijing. Although Beijing is in the geographical center of the province, it is not actually considered a part of the Hebei province. A commonly used metaphor is that Shijiazhuang acts as Beijing's guardian, hugging it into its arms. Despite protecting Beijing in this way, Shijiazhuang is still considered a "second-tier" city, compared to more developed "first-tier" cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hongkong. Therefore, with the COVID cases heavily centered in Wuhan in the South, I felt quite safe living in a Northern medium-sized city near the capital. And indeed, even during that time, we controlled the number of cases around two digits. However, everything has changed this winter. As China was recovering with every patient properly treated, the sporadic return of the virus showed itself again in several northern provinces with low temperatures in winter, including mine. We were well notified, whether through media or public broadcast, that the “coming back” will be inevitable since the virus could last longer in colder regions, but except wearing masks, everything seems to be back to normal. Starting on January 4th, the whole country started to push Shijiazhuang under the spotlight, where Patient One for Round two was found at the beginning of 2021. The nightmare began when 4 positive confirmed cases were reported in one day. Then, 7 for another day; and then 11; 20; 120… Up till now, there are 401 confirmed cases in total within one week. All of a sudden, our city has been regarded as “the second Wuhan”. 

Using my father’s words, “everything is unprepared.” The first stage policy by the government was to keep the viral spread under control by forcing a strict “stay at home” order for three days. The immediate lockdown of the city mandated everyone to stay where they were. It was lucky that my mom and dad were with me during the chaos, whereas a lot of families had members blocked outside of the province. Food and basic necessities have also been in shortage for every household since the lockdown happened nearly within a blink of the eye. However, the biggest torture was done mentally. Rumor had it that the virus had already been widely spread around the whole city, and the confirmed cases were underestimated. Credible reports confirmed as well that the main reason behind the outbreak, especially in rural areas, was attending weddings and large gatherings. It is understandable that people selected auspicious days, as the beginning of a new year, to wish for the best fortune in their marriages. Nevertheless, it is also these 20-ish events that mixed innocent attendees together. Thus, it was not enough to just let people stay at home and take a random guess of whether they’d been close contacts. Immediately after the ban, the government decided to perform nucleic acid testings for all 11 million citizens within three days. Such a large number of test receivers caused a huge burden on the current medical system. Therefore, experts and brave healthcare workers/medical staff rushed into the frontline from Beijing, Guangzhou, Jiangsu, and all around the country. During this period, they are the most honored groups, taking the responsibility of the whole nation to save lives. In the past few days, the young nurses and volunteers in charge of my community stayed in the temporary test spot in the underground parking lot for days, wearing heavy protection suits and suffocating N95 masks without even a heater in the coldest weather. Every early morning, I wake up to the noise of them spraying disinfectant vapor in each corner of the community, and their shout of self-encouragement blessing our city-- “We can make it, Shijiazhuang!” (“石家庄挺住！”） In the reports, we gratefully call them “the greatest walkers running in the most dangerous direction”. There is a Chinese proverb ”to send charcoal in snowy days”（雪中送炭）. Here, I think every one of us should say thank you to people around you working against the virus, including healthcare workers, service providers, and whoever offers us help in the pandemic.

                                                                                            cr.AFP

Besides the situation, something that also provides me with new thoughts is my perspective on the “Chinese relationship” or the “Chinese-specific warmheartedness”. When we went through the toughest time of the outbreak, it was our community and neighbors’ collectivism that helped us out of the darkness. The aunties living upstairs would give away their food to us. The uncles living in the other buildings volunteered to guard our public yard. Moreover, the young bros even risked their lives sending food and express delivery to the whole city. (We call kind people we don’t know “aunties”, “uncles”, and “bros” without a true family relationship in China.) We are all strangers to each other, but when it comes to difficulty, there is a humane responsibility embedded in our culture to offer our hands, no matter who is in need. I am deeply moved by this collective force that carried us through multiple challenges and was taught to always treat people with a warm heart. 

Now, the situation is still severe for all of us. Nevertheless, I am sure Shijiazhuang will get through it with great courage and strength, just like Wuhan and any other place in the world. Hope every one of us follows the instructions and stays safe! Good luck, Shijiazhuang! 石家庄加油！

(More info can be found on https://supchina.com/2021/01/14/life-amid-lockdown-2-0-in-shijiazhuang/ )

                                                                cr. steelguru.com

**Recent Update on Jan 27**

After nearly one month of effort and five times of collective testing for all, we finally reached the inflection point with only 2 daily increases of confirmed cases now!!! I’m so excited that the outbreak could be kept under control at such a lightning speed. And don’t worry about us guys! We have been receiving resources, food, and basic necessities from all over the country, and the delivery service is back! Thank you again to all of the people working against the pandemic. I must say with the experience in mind, the best suggestion I can give for keeping safe is to STAY AT HOME for whoever you care about! Collectively, we can all get to the dawn of hope and SEE YOU ON CAMPUS <3