Postcard from Wuhan: yes, there is life after lockdown
After 76 days, Wuhan residents are finally allowed to go out. Here’s what life feels like after COVID-19.
After more than two months, the quarantine has officially ended. Should I have expected fireworks?
Not much changed on Wednesday, as the travel restrictions were finally lifted, but over the past two weeks, Wuhan has slowly and surely reopened.
The subway restarted several weekends ago, although my wife and seven-year-old daughter are not using it just yet. We have been to the main shopping mall in Wuchang, and the locals are clearly keen to be out and about, trying to get a sense of the old life.
Fast-food stalls were doing all right. We tried bubble tea, but it’s a bit ridiculous drinking through a face mask. And there was nowhere to sit, which is half the reason cafes exist.
Speaking of face masks, I did see somebody waltz down the street in his worst winter pyjamas. As his face was covered in a mask and heavy goggles, he had no reason to feel embarrassed.
I saw only one restaurant offering table service. All the others were still closed.
The 76-day quarantine was tough at first. As the days wore on, those original evacuation flights to the Northern Territory camp looked increasingly attractive.
The lockdown got much tighter. Previously we could go to East Lake, but after two weeks we couldn’t even do that. We received and paid the apartment security charge at that time, annoyed that we were paying our own jailers.
After a week, I couldn’t take it any more and jumped the fence. Even the Yangtze was strangely empty — usually it is a highway of boats taking goods out into the big wide world.
Apart from a few supermarkets available for online ordering only, absolutely nothing was open.
New hobbies are a good way to kill time. My bread making improved. Grandfather was a baker and making bread is a valuable life skill. I am now much better prepared for the COVID-28, COVID-37 and COVID-49.
The lockdown in Hubei province has been effective in part because of two key characteristics of Chinese society: guanxi (relationship) and mianzi (face, as in losing it). These concepts stretch back to Confucius and beyond. Society is a web of mutual obligation. When your neighbour is locked in their apartment, so are you.
However, guanxi and mianzi are only part of the picture. Most people in Wuhan live in high-density apartment complexes. It is easy to ensure compliance by razor-wiring all but one exit.
The day after I jumped the barrier, I came back and saw security had added some wire and thought: “If you think that will stop me, you’re dreaming.”.
Two days later, I took another look and there was razor wire all along the top and a 2.5m barrier set back from the gate. I thought: “If you think that is going to stop me, you are 100 per cent correct.”
Many things have changed in the past two months, and I don’t see how we go back to how life was.
Consider work and travel. I am due in Australia for a geophysics survey, but that will require two weeks in quarantine in Adelaide and then another two weeks when I return. How will the travel industry deal with that?
My mother is 90 years old. I really don’t think she will make 100. Do I get to see her again, and how will I make the funeral?
Wuhan got in on the ground floor of this coronavirus, and for that reason paying attention to what happens here in the next few weeks and months might pay dividends for Australia.
Some businesses will go to the wall, and a collection of new ones will emerge. The deaths in Wuhan have gone from well over 100 a day to virtually zero. As this city comes to life again, I for one am interested in signs of new cases.
Maybe summer will burn the virus out. Wuhan is known as the “Oven of China”, so if you want to know if hot weather makes a difference, look this way.
Some unsolicited advice to finish: keep a sense of perspective, even as the numbers get bad.
It is unlikely you will catch this virus if you take basic precautions. And if you do, it is unlikely to claim your life, but it is possible.
Stay calm, healthy and physically active — and before you know it, the most dangerous part will be over.
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