The weather has turned much better in the last week or so, in major contrast to Winnipeg which just got snow dumped on it again. But that’s how Spring can be, and with Spring here in Beijing, we’re seeing more people out and about, the flowers are blossoming (including the seasonal Cherry Blossoms), and the notorious traffic has also returned.
And this is a good thing, as it shows that China itself is returning to a more normal life. One of the things that’s changed in my building is that the cleaning lady has finally returned. I guess she had gone back to her hometown for Spring Festival back in January and I haven’t seen her until just last week. This is a much welcome return since the guy who had replaced her during her absence had this nasty habit of working throughout the night. Our building’s lights are sound-sensitive and this guy would move around at 3 am collecting the garbage and clearing his throat and yelping in order to turn the lights on. The now-returned lady, however, is much quieter and doesn’t start her work until about 5 am or so.
I wrote last week that the malls seemed busier now, too, though most shops were still empty. This isn’t unusual since I’ve hardly ever seen people in a shop buying something unless it’s Uniqlo or Zara or Apple. Everything else seems to be for display purposes only. Cafes and many of the Western-food establishments have seen a continued level of business, though with a reduced number of people allowed in and a lot of space in between tables.
But there are other shops, such as hair salons and Chinese restaurants, that haven’t seen much of a return of clientele. There are a few people, but it seems people are still opting to stay at home and order in rather than go out. No doubt this is a combination both of a lack of restaurant staff (some may have even closed down) and the continuing practice of isolation.
That isolation, I think, won’t last. That is, we will probably see a return to restaurants being full as the weather warms up even more. What I do expect to see is some sort of strict policy or guideline to restaurants and the such that there will be a new standard for cleanliness. This probably won’t be a bad thing, but it will probably see the end of many of the small, “authentic” Mom-and-Pop restaurants that travellers love to see but usually pose some sort of health or safety risk to the area.
Despite the fact that the government issued a notice a few weeks back that masks are no longer required in public, they are still encouraged, especially in work settings and if the distance between people is 1 metre or less. That won’t affect the Chinese population too much since many Asian countries wear masks quite often regardless of being sick and more in an effort to reduce the amount of pollution they inhale within the city limits.
In the West, however, this practice will be harder to implement but much more welcomed when it’s done away with. I’ve seen some people claim that if it’s easy to teach people to wash their hands, then they can be taught to wear a mask. But that’s not an equivalent argument. The equivalent would be if people can be taught to wash their hands, then they can also be taught to wash their face (since it uses the same water source or disinfectant wipes). Wearing a mask is more like wearing gloves: it’s something external and now has to be carried around, to say nothing of the fact that if any germs, bacteria or viruses are on the surface, those get moved around and deposited wherever the mask or gloves touch down. So it will take some getting used to but hopefully will be done away with once the weather gets truly warmer.
And the numbers of confirmed cases has gone up substantially since the last time I posted, with the US, Italy and Spain rising in massive numbers. But, as it seems to be normal to do these days, nobody trusts the numbers, they say the Chinese numbers are lower because they didn’t properly account for all the types of sick people, and now, even in the West, although the testing is being done, it’s being done in a generic fashion so that any of the types of Coronarvirus can be detected and accounted for, but there’s no specification that the test returned the COVID-19 virus itself. All of which means people have something else to debate and distrust their respective governments over.
And here’s a shot of gas prices because everybody else seems to be posting how cheap gas has become:
And on one final note, the weekend of April 3-6, 2020 is Qingming or Tompsweeping Festival, during which families go out to their ancestors’ graves and clean up. I’m not sure if there were any restrictions of movement this year because of the Coronavirus outbreak but the city did pay tribute to all the health care workers and people who had died during the outbreak. The flag in TianAnMen Square was flown at half mast and there was a three minute moment of silence. As a result, WeChat and other Chinese social media platforms were filled with memes paying tribute to those had succumbed to the virus:
As it stands, we haven’t been told when we’ll get back to work but the schools are set to reopen on April 7th and, most importantly, the Chinese university entrance exam, the GaoKao, has been postponed to July 7th and 8th. And that’s something that can’t be moved much further. Finally, the universities will also restart at the beginning of May. So, if all goes well and there isn’t much of a resurgence in case, then we’ll most likely be back to work in May along with most other people.
Stay safe out there and remember to wash your hands!