Life inside China during the CoViD-19 Virus Outbreak

in news •  7 days ago  (edited)

As some of you may know, I live in China.

As all of you know, China is feeling a little under the weather lately with a bit of a fever, a slight cough and a splash of death.

This is far more politically involved than you'd like to believe, and I'll probably go into that in a follow-up post, but I thought it might be interesting to hear how much the virus is actually affecting my own life short of actually getting into my body.

To be clear, this is more of a mild set of inconveniences for me, and I can't rightly use this platform to complain when literally millions are going through what they are. My life here is still, at the end of the day, more comfortable and convenient than living in, say, England, which seems, for the most part, to be trapped in the 1990s.

I've made a little video of my trip to the supermarket today before we get started on the following lecture of my life. It's somewhat interesting in places I suppose!

A Little Perspective

The virus has some pretty good timing, almost as if someone is actually playing Plague inc. in a hyper-realistic simulation. Like SARS in 2003, CoViD-19 popped up around Chinese New Year, the biggest holiday of the year and the largest human migration in history. What a great way to spread one's seed!

So naturally, the only way I'd get a chance to fly out for vacation was to book well in advance, long before any outbreak had happened. By the time we heard about it hitting maybe 100 people in one province, I was outta there, but the hysteria had already hit global levels and the airport on departure felt rather on edge, with 95% of people wearing masks. I really respect this responsible if a little over-the-top response.

It wasn't long before I was reading about UK-sized populations going under total lockdown, and cities surrounding my own (Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Taizhou...) were all going under semi-lockdown (where only one person per household may leave their home, once every two days, for supplies). It wasn't long before I was being force-fed a stampede of leaked footage demonstrating how the situation is far worse than the mainstream media lets on (which, for the West, can only rely on what they can grab either freely by state-run media, which of course has a very controlled agenda or a few drops of leaked footage here and there if it ever gets outside of China).

Video footage includes people being beaten to a pulp for suspicion of coming from Wuhan, being locked into their apartments with metal bars by their neighbours and fed by being delivered food at their windows, fights breaking out at town borders where vigilantes have set up tons of boulders, rocky debris or just weaponized groups to prevent anyone coming in ever again. Other footage includes those finding desperate solutions for masks, be it paper or fruit shells or cut-out water bottles over their heads, but the most important ones are insights to the hospitals in the epicenter of the crisis, in which doctors are having to wear adult diapers to shit themselves while they work because they simply cannot take a break for days at a time, others having major panic attacks and others having their faces malformed from the constant strain of wearing masks their entire lives.

The darkest footage is from those videos showing the people being dragged away against their will, the dead piling up in the hospital corridors, and the new, super-fast constructed 'hospitals' turning out to be little more than large rooms to store those waiting to die, beds constructed of wooden panels and a sheet on top.

Needless to say, I was somewhat relieved that I made it out of there, as Shanghai itself started hinting at major enforcement, too. Schools and businesses shut down indefinitely, destroying the lives of countless including people I personally know, masks became mandatory for public transport, but mask supplies remain at zero for weeks along with any other countermeasure products.

England was comparatively safe. I still felt a slight edginess, especially with the Chinese who were all still wearing their masks, and when I shopped around in my visit, I failed to ever find a store with their masks still in stock, and any large chains such as Boots were perpetually out of any disinfectants or alcohol hand gels or similar. This applied in London and in smaller towns such as my hometown, Leicester.

For the most part, however, people were not thinking too much about it. At least on the surface. But they were thinking about it just enough to mess with my life. I wrote the above perspective because I don't want people to think my situation in any way compares with the struggles millions are going through in China right now, but I wanted to highlight just how global the struggles have become.

Here Comes Trouble

We've all probably read about the rise in racist sentiment against the Chinese, and we saw this ignorance first hand when visiting the National Art Gallery. One girl was walking around with her top raised close to her chin, on guard. Whenever an Asian individual came within range of her, she would rapidly lift her top over her nose and mouth until the Asian went away.

As amusing as this might seem, it shows that ignorance has no borders. What does she hope to achieve doing this? Is her top specially designed to filter out viruses? Does covering one's face for 2-3 seconds prove effective against floating particles in the air all around you? Are Asians the only ones capable of contracting this virus? Did all Asians come from China? Oh well. Sigh and move on.

This was an early signal that the hysteria of the virus was beginning to spread at a much greater rate than the virus itself.

Later, when visiting friends, I was offered to stay at one of their mum's homes overnight. How kind! Unfortunately, she later discovered that her son was referring not to the friend with the same name as me, but me, the one who came from China. Instantly she insta-banned me from ever going near her, and we had to instead drive for 2 hours to another city where my friend lived, and he had to sleep on the sofa before driving me back again the next day to get a bus to go back this way once more. Fantastic.

While I was in this new city - Milton Keynes - I was eagerly checking my updates to see how the virus is spreading, any new information, and checking whether my flight was still on. The evening showed it was fine, a mere two days before departure. However, the same flight on that day was canceled. This was a very bad omen. Should mine follow suit, I barely had time to figure out another path out of England and back to China.

(At this point, everyone was saying 'good', calling me crazy for even thinking about going back, but hey, I had no choice).

Waking up the next day, it turned out that my flight, to nobody's surprise, was indeed canceled, and in fact, all flights were to be canceled indefinitely.

Stressed out of my head, I looked for new flights and stunningly there were only THREE flights that would go to China, direct or otherwise. A single flight from China Eastern costing well over $1500, Aeroflot and another Chinese airline.

Most of these flights were 30-something hours, some requiring you to change city during transfer. But one flight per day via Moscow was feasible and affordable so I went with that.


My money went through, but it was returned soon after. I called them to make sure they were not going to cancel and they assured me, but also said the price I was being quoted and was paying for was impossible, as they were not selling it at such a low price.

I tried 4 others and from different sites and all were rejected.

I was trapped, with dwindling money (already borrowing at this point due to lack of access to my main bank account because China is annoying), cats at risk of abandonment and a job threatening to fire anyone who wasn't back on time.

At the same time, rumours were spreading that by the 7th of February, all flights into China would be halted

It became a race against time as my panic set in deeper. But, after some hours, some food and some time away from my now one-night hotel room roughly the size of a single bed and space to stand up (bathroom down in the basement somewhere), I received amazing news that I could stay at another place for at least a week or so if needed free of charge.

That is until... The landlord of this place discovered that I came from China, and he was Chinese. I was swiftly perma-banned despite having been safely away from China since before the pandemic, and for a solid 2 weeks without symptoms.


At this point, I felt a little like enemy number 1. The leper hiding in the shadows in fear of being strapped to a ladder and burned alive. To be clear, I'm very white. This was not so much racism against me, but irrational fear which can and does result in the same thing eventually.

I had to get out one way or another.

It soon occurred to me that I had one more method of payment I hadn't tried yet, as I had never actually set it up to begin with. WeChat.

Wechat is like Whatsapp in China but it functions as a feature-all app where you can pay bills, book cinemas and, indeed, flights.

I spent some time figuring out how to connect it with my main account, verification, etc. and... HAZAA, I had one single way to access my main source of income.

Within minutes I had a surprisingly cheap flight booked. The next day I was up and outta there.

On the Other Side

Arriving in Shanghai was somewhat surreal.

Other than those on the plane all wearing masks, it started off pretty standard. Getting into the airport itself was another story. Everyone was covered head to toe in scary hazmat suits, ushering people this way and that, temperature stations scanning your bodies and everyone was made to fill and sign forms telling them where you came from and how many contacts with Wuhan people you may have had.

My flight was the only flight arriving. Midday, Shanghai. Biggest city in the country.

This was kind of great. Going through immigration, there were only 3 foreigners including myself, so I got through at lightning speed. The question, however, was how was I gonna get home?

I decided to take the Subway was probably the best, or only, option. This is the longest and most annoying route, but it looked like nobody was going to use it so I'd at least get a seat.

I wasn't wrong - From the airport right into the busiest stations in the city, from Century Avenue to Lujiazui, Jingan Temple and finally my stop... I saw perhaps 30 people use that line.

Later, it was reported that on that day, about 100 people were found to have fevers and taken into custody. I don't like those odds, but too late to dwell on it now.

I was made to wear a mask before I could even enter, but it didn't look like I needed it given the closest person to me was a good 10 metres away or so.

Finally, I reached the outside world, fairly peaceful, empty streets before getting home to my healthy cats who I had instructed to stay indoors for the last week due to uninformed individuals being reported killing animals in the streets on the false rumour that pets were spreading the virus among people.

So now I'm here, my work and the government decided that we would all be staying home at least another week and actual work would not begin until March, and I get to sit here observing the pollution-free stars, enjoying the voluntary quarantine my friends have all been sitting through for the last 2 weeks.


Also my salary gets delayed a month. Boo.

As of writing this, some extra measures have been hammered down onto Shanghai. I can no longer have deliveries to my door, nor to my complex, and I have to now make a ten-minute walk to the end of my residential block to pick anything up I might order.

Masks are legally mandatory in all public areas, as are temperature checks; I got checked 4 times between home and the nearest supermarket.

Most big franchises and other home comforts have been shut down and so unless I cook at home, delivery options are largely limited to noodles and rice, but supermarkets are still plentiful.

There are helpful services and apps that can track, for example, the location of infected victims in your area and where they are being quarantined. I'm not sure how much it helps other than to scare people but it's nice to know I guess.

So there you have it.

So far untouched by the virus itself, its aftertaste stretches right around the globe and sticks its tendrils in every orifice that doesn't welcome it anyway. And it's super annoying.

Things are changing on a daily basis so by the time I post it, it will already be somewhat obsolete, so if there's interest I may keep making some updates here and there.

How much of this is a result of the virus itself, and how much of it is media frenzy and political action, is something I'll delve into more seriously in the next post.

For now though... SIGH.

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Reading a firsthand, uncensored information about the situation of things over there is quite refreshing. I have always known that this will have a political undertone. Please continue to update us and FYI, I will be sharing this on twitter.

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Thanks for sharing!

And yes people seem quite eager to remove the political aspect of this but they are deeply intertwined and there's no way I can fully cover it, but I'll give my best for the small amount I know

I salute all doctors, Medical people and other social workers for their support for suffering people.

I am the only once concerned about how would they dispose those millions of mouth masks circulating around the globe now.

We have a whole bunch more to worry about on top of that too... toilet flushing, fingerprint scanning at airports, dirty phones... cruise ships, you name it

I like the Steemit platform because we can see uncensored insight like this! Yes, please continue!

Here, here!

wow how crazy is all that? I can't believe you were turned away for being from china.
Its great to read a 'real story' and first hand experience. It must be just as crazy seeing everywhere empty as seeing the dudes in the suits. Stay well. thanks for the post

Yeah a lot of kind of 'surreal' feelings, including why I'm in my dressing gown instead of at work which should have started last week... I'd say can't complain but with everything shut down I really just wanna get back to it!

Cheers for reading =)

Thank you for sharing your personal experience.

My uncle is currently in NanJing, and he teaches in WuHan. He got out of the city before the quarantine. Last, he told me that he and his colleagues were required to teach via video or audio to people still locked down in the area.

He was reluctant to talk in detail about the situation over where he’s at on WeChat. I don’t blame him. This certainly offers the perspective I needed.

Good for your Uncle =) as a music teacher myself, the online teaching idea going around works pretty well in my favour, since my primary subjects are History & Composition. It kind of complements computer usage so I'm lucky in this regard.

However, for others, for example my friend running a business in education requires his staff to do online teaching to kids as young as 2, 3 years old and it's just... not working. But with no choice, its the destruction of the business. Pretty sad.

WeChat is always a concern yeah... that's why I have a nice blend of WeChat, Whatsapp, Discord and Telegram =)

The only times we can be candid about things is when we meet up in Taiwan.

That is a fascinating read and I hope that you and your cats remain safe and healthy. I am ethnically HK Chinese and live in Cambridge. I am curious as to why you think England is stuck in the 1990’s. I’d be interested to hear your perspective 🙏🏽

Thanks for reading! Well, it's mostly because I have been heavily spoilt in Shanghai for years.

My first thoughts come to public transport; buses that are infrequent, slow, constantly late and very expensive, trains that are the extreme version of what I just said. Heck, even the underground in london is constantly drowning in delays, which I fell victim to at least 4 or 5 times in the brief time I was there, and it's not like I was using it constantly. The subways have no ability to use phone data, they're tiny and slow, heavily polluted and overcrowded - and you have to pay 20x (literally) the price for the pleasure of it all compared to Shanghai!

Many other aspects apply to things outside of London; most places I've ever known are entirely unchanged since childhood, with the exception of one shop being replaced with some cafe here and there.

And for the most part, it doesn't feel like there are new, vibrant British people, they appear to be all the same people from 20 years or so ago, just older. I don't know where all the youngsters have gone but most of the UK seems to be aging drastically, with the exception of those immigrants coming in from around the world. If you go to 'white' areas, the average age seems to skyrocket to 85 or something!

Finally, I'm spoilt with the culture of WeChat and Alipay, which comes with mega-fast and convenient services the likes of which England will probably never enjoy, and I genuinely think I will have a difficult time adjusting without these things when I eventually go back to England...

All of this, of course, is just my perception in my current spoilt situation though. I'm sure England still has its wonders - and there are many amazing things the 90's has that the 20's doesn't anymore!

That’s really interesting. I think England and probably Western Europe does need regeneration. History shows that powers rise and fall and I’m sure the future is in Asia and Africa (again). I was in Shanghai for the 2000 new year celebrations and lived in the Shandong area teaching English for a year. I could have happily lived in Shanghai or HK but not the rest of China long term. Shanghai had an air of its colonial past, yet has modern transportation and is relatively cosmopolitan. I hope to hear more about your life there 🙏🏽

btw. I lived in HK in 1988 for 6 months. Being a Buddhist Indian I totally have an affinity for reading this exchange. @mobbs ! I admire people who deviate from their paths to experience something different, while the people they grow up continue on their regular cycled and routines. The perspectives can be so enriching. I'm so fascinated.

Glad its of value! I've spent my entire adult life in Asia, so I feel quite out of place going back to England as I'm never back long enough to allow me to adjust - Like a tourist in my own country... pretty interesting!

I would recommend it to anybody really, 'enriching' is accurate =)

Thank's for sharing your personal experience on-site. And good luck!

Thanks! Good luck to the whole world, really =)

Excellent information.

And a perfect example for me of what Steem should be about.

My daughter begins studying Chinese at university in September.

Her course will include one or two years in China so we are keen to learn what 'real life' is like in China - particularly in this very difficult time.

I was particularly fascinated by the video of the trip to the supermarket. I hope you can make more of these.

Thank you.

Oh that's cool. I've been here long enough to know a little about a lot of stuff so feel free to ask me down the line for any advice or anything your daughter might need! Hopefully the Summer will spell the end of the crisis enough to go back to normal life for most people... =)

I'll put some more videos up if anything interesting happens for sure!

Great thank you for the offer.

I think it is one of the universities in Beijing she will be going to. Hopefully everything will be back to normal by then.

I have a friend visiting here (in the US) from China. He came here several months before the outbreak and was planning to go back in the middle of March. At this point, I guess he will have to stay here until the end of his 6 month VISA, but I'm wondering about what happens when that runs out (because of the lack of flights from US to China).

It seems like there will need to be some way for such people to extend their VISAs, if they can't go back to China. I mean, maybe he can go to some other country in the meantime, but that makes little-to-no-sense, and would be incredibly expensive as well (here he's staying with family).

The extreme circumstances may warrant emergency visa situations as has been the case for a few, but yeah for the most part it's a tricky situation. I'd have thought from the UK I could take any indirect flight, but with airlines around the world cutting China off, pretty much Russia was the only dependable one, and even that was only a single airline remaining (though they seemed comfortable that they weren't going to change these policies - Aeroflot).

It's rough. If I can somehow help from this side feel free to ask on their behalf =)

At this point, I don't think he wants to go back home yet. He lives about 1000 km from Hubei, but, even in his city, his friends have told him that most everything is closed, only 1 family member leaves the house for supplies, etc, so he'd just be incredibly bored there right now.

I'm just hoping that the US does something to extend VISAs for people in his situation. But given the current political climate here, I'm not sure I can expect a rational plan for such people.

Well, I congratulate every extra second they get to stay away for now! The news just came out that they 'revised' the definition of infected people and the numbers just skyrocketed... oopsey. Fingers crossed the US speaks sense on the matter then

Definitely very interesting to read @mobbs and a well-written, engaging account. Stay safe/sane & thanks for reporting to us of your experience from the ground.

Was speaking to a Chinese neighbor in our building in Florida @blocktrades & she gave me the impression that it was a total non-issue in China & her friends/family are flying back & forth, no problem.

Upon further reflection, I think much was lost in translation (her English was so-so).

Thanks a lot - Sanity is easier for me than it is some of my friends, it seems! Some haven't left their apartments in weeks... Eesh.

There is an argument for it being a non-issue, in that, as I say in my video, 300 infected in a city of 30 million, statistically it's not so dangerous; even if you catch it, chances are you'll just get a mild cough.

But this fails to understand the potential dangers. What if it breaks out in poor regions of Africa, India? What about those who you inadvertently pass on to with your mild cough that ends up killing them? What if this, unlike SARS, is here to stay (as some scientists are suggesting) and it becomes a new addition to seasonal flus popping up around the world for years to come?

So I guess it depends on how healthy you feel and how good your insurance is!

Thank you @mobbs for your considerate & thoughtful reply.

I pray it is contained & that the less fortunate of the world are spared more suffering...

@blocktrades did the buyout mess up transfers? I transferred BTC into blocktrades a while ago and nothing has happened. Not even pending....

thank you so much for sharing true situation of china right now. and its an emergency for china peoples and they are fighting with corona bravely and also fighting to save the world

Yep, best of look to everyone in the country!

Thanks for sharing a firsthand experience and uncensored information about the situation of things over China is quite refreshing. Please continue to update us.

That's the plan! Thankfully nothing truly crazy is going on in Shanghai but I can get quite a bit of insight from locals =)

Thank you for sharing such a real view into your experience. I can't wait until you expand on the politics involved.

Also really exciting to see such a relevant and interesting post on Trending.

following with great interest.

Yeah I didn't expect it to get over the usual dollar or so, this is quite shocking haha.

It's very complex to get all the information in gear for the following post as everything is very fragmented and most people have to depend on personal accounts to come to conclusions which often inevitably land in conspiracy territory. Doing my best to sift through things shared by Chinese individuals that manage to get through before the censors cut them off...

This made my day... Your success on such an excellent post gives me hope we might learn to curate and reward excellent and also relevant content some day.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m on the other side of the world, and it is still an intriguing worrying theme.

Viruses like this know no borders or limits. All it takes is a plane ride =P

But nah you're pretty safe realistically!

Definitely more indepth than anything we're getting on the #fakenews over here in the US

In fairness, there is no such thing as #realnews when it comes to this story. State-run media is a concoction of 70% fabrication and 30% truth - just enough to make things seem plausible and, most importantly, favorable to the upper echelons of the political party. All we can do is try to glue together the most dependable looking sources of intel...

Thanks for sharing this, I was glad to see this first hand from someone on the ground! This is what I like about social media and steemit. I look forward to any more posts on this subject!👍

Amazingly appropriate emoji! I'm working on the political aspects today, but also plan to take some photos of some normally heavy populated areas of the city, assuming they're not blocked off or anything.

I have a friend here who has relatives in China and she confirms that the true numbers are way higher. I hope you're as prepared as you can be. Stay safe and keep those reports coming!


Funny you should say that as just as you posted this, they 'revised' how they define a confirmed case and the numbers skyrocketed. I'm sure you've already seen that, but now nobody is going to know what to believe at all!

Thank you for your information. My heart goes out to all the people dealing with such a lockdown situation. You have indeed experienced a crazy ordeal thus far. Prayers for continued safety and financial needs met.

My employer is absurdly rich so, at least in theory, I'll be ok financially, even though I'm lazing around at home when I should have been working a week ago... Hopefully Shanghai won't go full lockdown and I can enjoy this toned-down version of a normal city

That is comforting and I hope that you can!

Really hoping things normalize soon, and this terrible circumstance ends as well as you could wish for. I do appreciate your excellent post on this situation.


Thanks for dropping by again! Life for me has kind of normalized just because i've gotten used to the strange quirks, but surely it can't last forever...

Shared on Facebook. Thanks

Oh cool, thanks!

Finally some newsworthy content!

What, too many burnposts for your taste? =P

Thanks for sharing

Glad to see this post on trending page, seems curation is now more effective. Steemit is banned in China, right ?

Well I know some people which may have contributed, I dunno... but yeah I hope more proper writers get some recognition instead of just blockchain projects all the time.

Well yes Steem is banned, so you can't access any site that uses steem unfortunately (without a VPN)

thanks for reporting first hand (is it actually dangerous for you?)

fear spreads fast. Just checked last week at a pharmacy in a bigger German city. All high quality face masks had been sold out.

It's not really dangerous for me, in terms of the virus, at least for now unless at some point it goes extremely out of hand which is unlikely. The main risk for me would be job loss or forced evacuation or similar.

No surprise about the masks. I think its more likely wherever there is a notable chinese population, temporary or otherwise, they need to bring any supplied they can back to the country

thx for the quick reply

Thanks, friend! I was looking for something like this to read. Great first hand account of how this is impacting an individual.

Long time no speak! Thanks for dropping by, I'll continue with a follow-up post in due time (though don't expect to see it trending a second time lol)

Dont need to see it in trending if it's in my feed. :)

Hey, what do you think is the long-term effects then? Say, 6-10 months down the line? I heard that by April that the virus will essentially be gone and so then this will all be a thing of the past. Do you believe that? I mean the virus, in my opinion, is actually a positive for crypto as it making traditional stocks riskier but I am just concerned whether I believe the hype of the whole situation as it is. If the situation is as real and dangerous as the media will make us believe then will this be a further driving factor for crypto? It is always so hard to call these things and wit such an important year for cryptocurrencies and particularly bitcoin then knowing what the big markets for crypto, namely, in this case, China, are going to be doing in the coming weeks and months is very valuable for everyone.

I hadn't really thought about the effects it would have on Crypto tbh, but I would say declaring it over in April is extremely presumptuous. Nobody knows what direction its taking at this point, and its entirely likely it could be with us to stay, like any other seasonal flu. Ther's simply no knowing for sure.

But i'd say it's pretty unlikely on the basis that SARS was around for 9 months before succumbing to the summer and hygeine practices, and that was only 8,000 cases in total. We're at somewhere over 60,000 as of today, and the virus is clearly far more adept at spreading, so there's very little humans can do to stop that. We have to really depend on seasonal effects for now and isolation practices to mitigate the damage as much as possible.

Basically, if you are one of those 'experts' saying anything with confidence, you're probably wrong.

  ·  4 days ago (edited)

Hello, maybe it isn't the right time to think about it now when it is still on-going, but I am just curious as this area of the world was doing so much for crypto legitimisation and if anything I thought it would spur the market on as it already had a big impact on the traditional stocks so far, so I think it would be interesting to consider what the implications could be financially for crypto holders. Although, of course, I understand that there is likely more pressing concerns for you at the moment. In terms of the April date, this is something that I read in Reuters and was shared by one of the crypto platforms with the sentiment being basically that it won't be gone but the worst of it would be over, but you would definitely have a better knowledge of that than me. I'm just trying to understand the bigger picture.

It is a coronavirus so many experts suggest it may fade away, but the common cold fades away in the summer too and comes right back every year. So this is not what I think we should peg our hopes on. As for Crypto, again I can't really say other than how I know China manipulates the medi and sentiment of Crypto at its whim, in order to profit massively. One day its bad and dumps, the next day its good and pumps.

I'm sure they'll keep that up for a while to come

Thanks for posting this. This is the most I've heard of the situation as I do not watch the mainstream news. I feel it is more accurate than any propaganda the mainstream will shoot at us.

This is what most people are thinking these days, especially in China, most people are depending on first hand accounts, which can be just as, or more, dangerous, depending. Hopefully I can keep things real here!

Well thank you for sharing your personal experience unconditionally!

hey this is great information its a shame this is happening however I do feel this virus is man made. I believe there a cure to all illness I do not trust any government at all. if this spreads unfortunately lots of people will die and to make matters worse it could start an economic crash for the world my prayers are with those who are suffering right now peace and love

The problem is that the 'man-made' hypothesis is worryingly believable... because it's China. However, we have no evidence of this, short of flawed conspiracy speculation so far, and research into the virus shows it to be far more randomly thrown together and chaotic than humans would be capable of replicating. I do need to spend some time looking into that research myself though.

I somewhat hope for a Chinese economic crash really. They need to be humbled enough that they might actually sit back and for once, listen to their people

  ·  7 days ago (edited)

If it wasn't so real, I'd have sworn this is a snippet from a horror movie. Other than a few videos of people walking on empty streets, this is the closest account I've gotten of the effect of Corona virus.

A lot of people are misinformed and VERY scared. Stay safe, stock up on alcohol and food, stay indoors with your cats and just watch porn videos on YouTube or something.

I'd like to share this story on Twitter, do you have one? I'd like to tag you.

Haha, I hear that porn and gaming are two industries that are wildly benefitting from this outbreak...

But yes I'm taking every precaution I believe is necessary. I do have a twitter, though it's not one I use - @mobbs87 if it's still worth it!

A very delicate subject at a delicate moment in history in general. Excellent post. Please continue to share your situation, so we will know how you are. Our Steemit community must always be united and more in difficult times.

Nice mindset, very much appreciated! And yes I will continue to share (though you won't likely find it trending a second time)

Congratulations @mobbs!

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Thinking of you in this very difficult time you are experiencing.

Ah it's not so bad for me personally, more of a 'mild inconvenience' in perspective =)

  ·  7 days ago (edited)

Will you play Titanic again when things get bad? xD

Yeah but my abilities will have surpassed this embarrassing attempt by then

Awesome cheers. I'm still struggling my ass off to even look at reddit, but I can appreciate that my seed is spilling over there anyway =D

Very good chronicle!...Cheers!


Thanks for sharing your insight, never been to China myself.

I'd keep it that way if I were you =P

Yeah I will,

I used to live in Milton Keynes, place called “Two mile ash” do you know it?

Nah I just stayed overnight, my friend would surely know though. We just went to that Turing place...Bletchley Park

ohhh now,,, death the way to the afterlife

This is very interesting, definitely please try to keep posting about this. There is so much fake news and bait and switch narratives out there, most people don't even know what to believe.

We know some of the real numbers, if not all, are not what the governments report. I've seen some videos of people getting evacuated - so to speak - for health and security reasons. There are some videos circulating from doctors "coming out" with real data or different numbers. We have articles stating everything is under control and the WHO is doing everything to help, and at the same time there is so many articles and videos "leaked" pointing exactly to the opposite, where chaos is boss.

I've known you, at least from here, for quite a while, so reading your impressions and first hand experiences is quite the ride. Hopefully you'll be able to keep us updated with what I may dare calling real, verified news.

Best of luck Mobbs.

Absolutely. It's hard even for me to find truth in terms of data. Most people have turned to social media anecdotal footage and so forth to try and get a balanced view because the numbers from the government are very clearly fake - Where Guangdong reports 0 deaths, people in Guangdong were sharing videos from their apartments of people being taken away in body bags by people in hazmat suits.

We can never know what's really going on unfortunately. Now the CCP has changed the definition of what gets reported too, it's even harder!

But I've been doing my best to gather data, patterns and personal experience so hopefully I can continue with a colourful and fairly reliable description!



Dreadful and surreal situation.Reality is again stranger then fiction.
Wishing you and all of us all and only the best.

Thanks a lot! I think a lot of people need the good luck vibes

I feel ashamed to be British reading how you were treated! People should actually educate themselves rather that relying on the press and gossip and then becoming irrational.

That's not what the world is about anymore, unfortunately. Sensationalism as fast as possible, that's all that matters!

Granted, I imagine most people are normal so don't be too ashamed =)... it's typically the idiots that tend to stand out

Yes sad but true!

Thanks for sharing this inside view with us. Seriously a well written and concisely expressed post. Being of asian origin, I feel you on the retro west. I work with exporters there and in the forwarding industry. Not only are many factories on lockdown, but also shipping vessels and airlines aren't shipping any goods either.

Yeah it's rough for so many corporate enterprises now. There are very few that are actually surviving to any reasonable level, and even fewer are thriving (Porn, Computer games, mask producers...)

Glad you enjoyed the style of content anyway!

I read the story to the end. Please be careful and share all new development.
Thank you for sharing @mobbs

Posted using Partiko Android

I am slowly collecting things to build on a follow up post (of a more political nature)! Thanks for reading the whole thing, I know I don't always keep things efficiently interesting

  ·  5 days ago (edited)

I'm watching the news and all I heard some negative happening for the 2 journalists that had been at large. So be careful also to yourself since you are yet inside China.
Keep safe your identity and whereabouts

Luckily still no cases around me either - for 3.5 km!

I'm sure they will creep closer and closer... until it's in your bedroom!! mwhahah.... Nice to see a fellow shanghai-er stuck in the mud here =)

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good job :)

Great write up from a first person narrative. I do believe the Chinesse government is mostly an authoritarian regime, but you also have to take into consideration, how quickly would have this virus spread if they had not enacted any of the tactics you describe in your post? That is probably not something that can ever be accurately calculated...

how quickly would have this virus spread

Well, the spread occurred as a direct result of their actions in the first place. So sure they might be quite effective at cleaning up a mess, but its a mess they started. They actively silenced and arrested the doctors who were first to blow the whistle on this dangerous new virus, allowing it to go out of control and forcing them to acknowledge its existence... when it was far too late.

Any normal country wouldn't arrest doctors for 'spreading rumors‘ like that, they would have investigated and isolated early on.

The results after the fact may look impressive, but at what cost? Every friend around me is directly affected by the clampdown and not in any nice way. In short, many of them are totally f**ked, many of which whose businesses are already dead in the water, bankrupt. Apply this to literally millions upon millions around the country and you start to wonder which is worse, a bit of flu, or complete destruction of endless lives?

I guess that answer depends on where you're standing.

I hope everything will be ok in China soon.

its so dangerous for human

I live in a small but prominent city in Australia and fear of the virus is high.

Much of Australia is on fire and there have been extreme weather conditions (flooding rain, dust storms, heat waves, hail, thick fog banks).

A few days ago a man collapsed in the city center. This was on a day with record high temperatures. No one would give him CPR because everyone assumed he had the virus. The only article I saw about the situation didn't say whether the man survived until the EMTs arrived.

There also a lot of fear and resentment about the annual wave of Chinese students who are scheduled to come in for a new school term at Australian universities. There's been a public travel ban to keep the students out.


This is as shocking as it is unsurprising. The hysteria has gone overboard and its costing lives. Many more than we know. Dogs and pets are being beaten to death in the face or tossed out of windows based on the false claim that they are passing the virus around, police are chasing and beating innocent civilians up on the mere suspicion that they have connections to Wuhan. And outside of China like you say, people are quick to jump to irrational fears... It's pretty horrible to see unfold and truly highlights the weakness of the human spirit.

Hope things unfold a bit better down under!

News from China always do not get exposed to the world

A remarkable report, the kind of record that may become a primary source in years to come. So happy you are well. Hope you stay that way. Read on Discord that you had finally caught a flight back. Brave, brave, brave. But then there were the cats :)) And with hysteria about cat transmission, they needed you.
I would have have returned for the cats, also.
Be well. Hand washing, as you know, is more effective than sanitizer (with traditional flu virus).
Looking forward to more reports, especially to reports that you are doing well.

Well that study's problems aside, it's true that basic hygeine is the key, so it frustrates me that I'm legally required to do this mask thing even when, say, I'm completely alone in the street at night, or taking the trash out.

It's the same frustration as watching cities cover the streets in chlorine or whatever.. for what use it'll do. Sigh.

I'm glad some people understand the desperate need to protect one's family members (cats)!

It would be cool to see this pop up 30 years from now lol, but maybe a bit embarassing. Cheers for keeping up agmoore II!

The biggest question remains... If Bitcoin mining farms are being forced to close down - is Bitcoin the only reason for the bioweapon to be released?

That's certainly a new conspiracy I haven't heard yet!

This is really frustrating and sad for the people. There are many interesting things here that we yet do not know. I am interested on how this will affect the western world in short coming days.

If anything everyone where need to prepare for this.

There are numerous moderate effects happening, from trade to cruise ships, general racism, airlines, all kinds of stuff but so far I think nothing the west can't bounce back from or bypass. China specifically, on the other hand, is going to suffer big time, big enough that they certainly won't let on how much, but the consequences could be huge. The only way they will be able to crawl back from this is by taking extreme measures, such as cancelling their efforts towards climate change and turning up the coal, cutting down the forests etc.

Higher forced labour efforts and so forth.. who knows

  ·  7 days ago Reveal Comment