Posted on 05/02/2003 3:46:17 AM PDT by FreepForever
This is how an expatriate reported his first hand experience in SARS striken Beijing. He is about to leave China for good:
At the Beijing Airport
Last night when I went to pick up my friend at the Beijing Airport, three taxis in a row turned me down, which is unheard of. Usually they are ecstatic to get a long fare like that. I was utterly confused. Finally, a driver agred to take me there, and it all became clear: There was a veritable sea of taxis waiting in endless lines for passengers back to the city. In other words, lots of people are leaving the city and precious few are arriving.
I stood in the airport lobby in mild shock: There was almost no one there, maybe 8 or 9 sitting by the arrivals door, no one in the halls. What is usually a circus was an empty field. My friend arrived and told me there were fewer than 30 passengrs on his flight from Tokyo.
A City Under Siege
Isolation orders were imposed on homes, factories and schools where people who developed SARS symptoms lived, worked or studied. Communist Party cells in work units and neighborhoods ferried food and other basic necessities to people confined to their homes, while monitoring them to ensure they do not flee.
Authorities wrapped white-and-yellow crime-scene tape around a city block in northwestern Beijing, sealing more than 2,000 health workers and patients inside the Beijing University People's Hospital complex. Medical personnel there said by telephone that more than 70 staff members were suspected of having severe acute respiratory illness, or SARS, forcing the isolation of the facility.
Two of the city's major hospitals have been closed and sealed off, and one can only wonder where this will end. I don't believe I could exagerrate the craziness of Beijing at the moment if I wanted to. The CCTV announcer assured us in calming words that the city will not be blockaded and people will be free to travel in and out. But the very fact that a good number of the citizens here believe such steps really might be imminent says much about the current misery.
While observing all of this is, as I've said before, fascinating and amazing, it's impossible not to be depressed and frightened as well. I am scheduled to fly to Yunnan in 48 hours. How will I be greeted there? I just read that Hangzhou is holding passengers arriving from Beijing in isolation for two weeks.
We went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square today, and had them all to ourselves. Hawkers looking dazed and desperate ran up to us literally begging us to buy their tourbooks and trinkets. This is all they have, it's their life. What if this nightmare just goes on and on?
Goodnight Beijing, sleep tight
For the past 8 months I have tried to tell readers about Beijing the way I see it. There's no way I could just end all of that and not feel some nostalgia, some sense of loss, some poignant emotions. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't also relieved. Beijing is not an easy place to live during the very best of times. But during a veritable panic, when the city seems to hover on the brink of total breakdown, closing its schools and businesses and hospitals....during a time like this, it's hard not to feel as though you are being slow-roasted on a spit. With the flames being turned slowly but continuously higher and higher.
Tonight it seemed as though Beijing has become resigned to its plight. The mood everywhere seemed subdued, almost reticent, philosophical. The long lines at grocery stores are over, the palpable sense of fear has melted into one of acceptance. It's still a sad city, under enormous strain, but it appears at least to be coming to grips with the nightmare.
I finally went to the Great Wall today for the first time. Gorgeous, of course, but my friend and I had it all to ourselves, just as we had the Forbidden City yesterday. Tourists are nonexistent, and you can cry looking at the desperate shopkeepers whose fates are tied to the traffic to Beijing's tourist attractions. Yes, it's a sad, sad city, and I can't say I am sorry to be leaving a country that still, for all the propaganda, thrives on keeping its people in the dark.
I know I will never, ever have an opportunity that can approach the one I had here. China, for all of your harshness, your inscrutable ways and your daily hardships, I can't say that I do not love you. I will certainly never, ever forget you, and I thank you for making me a more tolerant and knowledgeable person. Thank you, and goodbye for now.
News Censorship Continues
Last night I saw yet another dimension to the evils of China's censorship machine. I was watching CNN in my hotel when a guest was introduced to discuss how China's lies about SARS in Beijing were damaging the nation's political system. This sounded interesting and I sat up to listen. Suddenly, to my utter amazement, the screen went black. It stayed black for about ten minutes with no sound. Then, just as suddenly, the picture and sound came back, just in time for me to hear the announcer thanking the speaker for his time. China is still obsessed with censoring the news and will go to any lengths to keep people in the dark about its crimes, whether we're talking about Tiananmen Square or SARS.
For anyone who wants to believe that China has actually learned from its experience of the past few weeks, for anyone who wants to believe China now understands how dangerous it is to smother the voices of others and suppress information -- I invite you to come to China and see what it is really like. I have tried to give them every benefit of the doubt, and still they emerge as paranoid thugs whose automatic response to criticism and/or scrutiny is to stifle it.
I won't go into this topic any more, as I am on vacation and want to keep my blood pressure at a safe level. All I can say is that any changes the government is attempting to demonstrate, any new-found spirit of 'glasnost," is strictly cosmetic. Same old brutes, same old party.
Far From Beijing But The Same SARS Blues
The best-selling tourist item here in Guilin is a T-shirt that says, in English and Chinese, "I Survived SARS 2003." It's funny, but it's also telling. Everyone, especially those whose destinies are linked to tourism, is feeling battered by SARS. It's got the country in a death-grip.
Even though I am far from SARS-ravaged Beijing, the disease continues to cast a pall over my vacation. Tourist sites are closed, flights are cancelled and everyone's depressed. My hotel in Guilin somehow got it into its head that since SARS doesn't like the heat, it would be a wise move to turn the hotel into a sauna. They have stopped the air conditioning and, despite complaints from a few very vociferous customers, turned the entire hotel into a hothouse. This is a huge hotel, and there are at most 20 customers. My hotel last week in Xi'An is a veritable fortress, and my guess is there were 8 to 12 people. You really have to see this to believe it. The staff just stand(s?) around as though everything is normal, the huge buffet laid out each night with no one to eat any of the food. How long can this go on?
Yes, just think about the number of lives saved from future wars with the Western world, and the number of people freed from the dictatorship.
I just can't help thinking that the SARS virus is actually a Nemesis.
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