Daily Life - SARS Related IV

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2003-05-26 22:28 · Sars

This is the forth article of a series of article on the daily life in Shanghai. From the changes in MY life, you may get some idea about the real situation in Shanghai.

Taxi

If you read about my previous “Daily Life - SARS Related”, you will know that I pay specially attention to taxis and taxi drivers.

Recently, nothing changed since the new regulations take effect on April 20. The daily disinfection does not stop and the 7 color tags rule is still working.

The taxi drivers still wear masks at work. They will remove it, hanging the masks on one ear for fresh air and put it on when passengers get on to the taxi. It is hard time for them - financial surfer due to lack of passengers and physical surfer due to the annoying masks.

Any crisis will give literature and art a bigger room to grow. It is the case of SARS. I saw some wonderful campaign on SARS on local TV.

The first one was shown from two weeks ago. It featured a little girl waiting for her mother who is a nurse in hospital. The recent one featured “I love Shanghai. I believe in Shanghai” from about 6 General Managers of foreign companies, like Siemens. Here comes the third one. It is about the contribution those people who got quarantined for SARS. Five (maybe five) persons of different occupation repeated the same sentence. “This is what we should do, because I love Shanghai”. I regret that I cannot show it in this webpage for you. It was really well done.

Well. This is what we call the morale building, isn’t it? These campaigns gave the nurses, the foreign invested companies and the people who got quarantined a lot of support by showing understanding and appreciation for their contribution.

City landscape

The city landscape does not change even a little bit because of SARS - if there is any change, it should be the emerging of new buildings. Below is a picture I took from a building near the Bund, facing north.

In the picture are the lower houses near Fuzhou road. The road on the right is Jiang Xi road and the intersection of the two taller building is Fuzhou Road. Nanjing road is about three blocks further. Shanghai has been cloudy like this for about a week and maybe will continue to be. Nothing affected by SARS, right? But mood of the people inside the houses has been changed greatly. SARS dramatically slowed down the pace of the city.

Above is the same scene looking a little bit eastward. You can see a small portion of the Huang Pu river on the right corner.

Sunsetting in Xujiahui, looking west. More and more new buildings appeared in the Hong Qiao Area. In the scene is the tallest building in Hong Qiao - but I forgot the name. Let me check it out later.

The figure

Today, 8 new cases were reported, among them,

Beijing 5

Shaanxi 1

Inner Mongolia 2

Good number. I was worried when I see the number of 40, 40, 34 in the last three days. Now the number goes down again.

Date - New cases reporeted
May 25 - 16
May 24 - 34
May 23 - 40
May 22 - 40
May 21 - 12

Other news - Earthquake

This afternoon, someone sent email to me if I feel the move of the floor. I didn’t pay attention to it since I think it is joking. Later, I saw this: Strong earthquake shakes Japan - Magnitude 7.0 trembler strikes northeast, felt in Tokyo.

Later someone reported that they feel the earthquake in Shanghai. Really? I didn’t.

Online broadcast

You should see the video between May 26 11:00 PM to May 27 11:00 PM.

Read more:

Daily Life - SARS Related III April 29, 2003
Daily Life - SARS Related II April 26, 2003
Daily Life - SARS Related April 17, 2003

8 Comments

I am so interested that earthquake here even become a news in my hometown Shanghai where is some 2000 kilometers away from epicenter under the offing of northeast,300 kilo or so north from Tokyo. It is the biggest one in recent years, but epicenter is gauged 71 kilo undersea, so the damage is limited, there is no casualty dead and severe house destruction reported. actually, quake felling is quite frequent experence here, once a month, sometimes a week, like a sway or quiver horizontally, but I haven't undergone it as stronge as can move down books on the desk in near 5 years. Sometimes I feel my chair moving softly again, but later I realized it just my heart pulse.(-:

I can proudly say, Shanghai is absolutly a place free from quake, considering both the history of zero record and stable earth slate structure. Maybe we can get a little feeling of that once several years, but it is no concern about any damage occured, that just give us a reassuring perception that the earth is still moving, and a joking topic in the lunch time relaxly. So, that is why the highest skysraper can and must locate in Shanghai, It is the priority and privilege belong to us, isn't it!

— Xu · 2003-05-27 16:45

Xu, I know the "little feeling" you were talking about - it should be in the summer of 1996 or so. I was in the 6th floor when the earthquake happened. It is the strongest earthquake I have ever experienced.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2003-05-27 20:08

Hey! It seems like the situation of SARS in Shanghai is a lot better. My dad is there right now and he says that people have adapted to the lifestyle changes and business is continuing on as normal. I was wondering what the official tally of SARS in Shanghai is. I think my boyfriend and I are going to try to make it there around mid June. We really want to visit but we cancelled our trip due to SARS. However, it looks like the situation is getting much better so maybe we will plan the trip next month. What do you guys think?

— Han · 2003-05-29 04:59

Han, That's what I'm thinking about also. Hope we can make it~

— rockzhz · 2003-05-29 20:49

My son( 17 years old) is scheduled to attend a month long program in Shanghai July 14-August 14th. He really wants to attend and we've love him to go but we're still somewhat hesitant because of SARS. What do you think?

— Barbara · 2003-05-30 04:20

Barbara,

Let him go. The SARS situation is much better now. There is no more case report for about a week and there is no local transmission in Shanghai so far. When there is any imported case, like the eighth one, the government has tried very best to find every single passenger on board and take quarantine.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2003-05-30 09:01

What if the incubation period for some mutated forms of SARS of carriers are longer than 30 days? If so, then symptoms (or lack of)would not be sufficient to demonstrate containment!

A wise old friend once told me, "When the facts are not all known, better to be safe than sorry."

— Vince · 2003-05-30 21:19

Even better news today. ZERO case in China today!!!! Congradulation China!!!! HAHAHAHA ^_^ (sorry for being a little weir~~ can't control myslef~~)

— Vivian · 2003-06-03 00:14