Entry 3, 10 May, 2003

In A Journey of the Plague Year, Defoe frequently walked about London, keeping up with his daily habits, but also he wanted to see firsthand how the Great Plague was affecting what he certainly thought to be the greatest city in Christendom. He often noted how certain shops were closed, how certain places seemed less habituated, and how Londoners often kept a careful distance between themselves and others. In other words, he saw his city as a much-changed place, one that had been deeply affected by all the fears one would expect from a Plague-threatened populace.

Shanghai is no such place. Yes, it has certainly been affected by this modern Plague, and there is no doubt that business is down in many restaurants and tourist haunts. Even the horrific Shanghai traffic isn’t anywhere near as bad as during past visits. But the ubiquitous masks which grace just about every face on the news broadcasts from Beijing are, in fact, almost unseen here. Except for those who work in places which serve the public, hardly anyone else is wearing a mask. Perhaps this is simply part of the attitude which the Shanghainese often express as the main difference between themselves and Beijingers, but I originally saw the lack of masks as an indication that things are essential “normal?in this city of almost 16 million.

As it turned out, the “normalcy?is rather more on the surface than anywhere else. The cab driver in my taxi from the airport to my flat at the New Harbour Apartments in central Shanghai didn’t wear a mask, but he also didn’t have the air-conditioning on in the car because, as he pointed out, the breezes would prevent SARS. And when we arrived at the reception desk for my “serviced apartment? both the receptionist and the chap who put my credit card through the electronic sensors wore masks. And without even a by-your-leave, one of the receptionists stuck a (sterilized) digital thermometer in my ear, and took my temperature. This was immediately logged onto a form which would be used to indicate my twice daily temperature reading. Also, I was placed on a floor which was reserved for those who had recently arrived in Shanghai (many of the flats are for long-term guests). Now I was beginning to feel the “new?SARS-affected Shanghai, but actually I found the daily temperature checks to be a relief, as I no longer had to worry, at least about my body temperature.

In the morning of my first full day in Shanghai, I decided to walk over to the famous “People’s Square? about 15 minutes from 88 Yongshou Lu, where I was staying. I passed many of the small restaurants in my quarter, and noticed that they weren’t jammed with customers as they would have been at any other time. I thought perhaps that, this date being the part of the May Holiday which was still left by the Chinese Government, there were fewer people at work, and thus the “dumpling & dojong?houses were less than full because of that. So, I expected the People’s Square to be full of kite fliers, sightseers and others. Well, there were many people surrounding the beautiful fountain, and there were a few kite fliers, but there were also many outside workers from the Shanghai City Government spraying antiseptic on just about anything which didn’t move or grow. As I sat on one of the marble benches in front of the Museum, I immediately noticed one of the workers sterilizing a refuse container right beside me. Good for the Shanghainese, I thought, hoping that such sterilization on a mass scale might make an important difference to the economy of this city.

Later that day, I had a meeting at one of Shanghai’s most important universities, and there I noticed the real difference which the fear of SARS had created, most of which “difference?would not be available to the average tourist. First, I wanted to get a picture of myself standing in front of the famous statue of Chairman Mao, in fact one of the few left standing on Chinese university campuses. But I was stopped at the University gates by an officious guard who asked me for my faculty card (in Chinese of course). I do have a rudimentary understanding of Mandarin, so I whipped out the business card of the Dean who had invited me, and that did the trick (with some help from a passing faculty member). But I noticed that every student was checked for id, and most of them were on bicycles, a mode of transportation which has only recently exploded in Shanghai (once again). So, I asked that same passing faculty member to take my picture in front of “the Chairman?(I’ve attached it to this file), and that made my day, not because Mao and I have about the same amount of hair, but because I thought there was a passing resemblance to the great man and myself (in all modesty, of course). Chinese readers will note that (as I’m often told by my Chinese colleagues), I also look a lot like Dr. Bethune, so at least there is a Canadian connection too!!

Okay, enough of that. I crossed the main road to the building where I was to have my meeting, and noted a hastily posted Chinese sign in the window of the entrance doors. “As a result of the SARS epidemic in “the People’s Capital?and other parts of the “Middle Kingdom?(Zhongwa), and in order to maintain the health of our community, please use the rear entrance.? So of course I complied, and was soon accosted by another security guard who checked my documents (the Dean’s card had worked well thus far!!), and allowed me in. I noticed that students also went through this ritual, and one young female student was denied entry because she didn’t have her card. Now, I won’t tell you about the meeting (the details would simply bore you), but I will tell you that I was treated almost like a hero by the Dean and a few of his colleagues whom he had managed to round up. This was to happen many times during the next few days of meetings since, as it turns out, very few foreigners have had (what my colleagues called) the “courage?to visit Shanghai, much less other parts of China. I explained that there was nothing heroic about coming to this eternally interesting city, but decided not to push the matter, as it isn’t every day one “rises?to the status of hero!

On the return trip to my “New Harbour?flat, I also noticed the lighter traffic on the expressways into Shanghai centre. This trip would normally take me 45 frustrating minutes, listening to the cab driver curse all along the way, honking his horn and speeding up whenever a break would come. Not this time. We made the trip in just over 25 minutes, almost half the normal time it takes. Which was a blessing, as I was looking forward to a brief afternoon nap before getting back to my e-mail and other work-related business. But not before my afternoon temperature check at the reception, the reading for which was essential the same as the morning reading.

I had planned for a relaxing evening in the flat. However, I was pleasantly surprised by a call from a colleague who wanted to take me out to dinner. He wanted me to meet his charming new wife, and also to talk a little business in preparation for our meeting at a brand-new private school the next day in Pudong. When we arrived at the famous “Zen?restaurant, situated in (I believe) Shanghai’s Duolun Lu Cultural Street, I was immediately struck by the fact that we didn’t need to stand in a half-hour queue to get into the place. I had walked by “Zen?on other occasions in Shanghai, but I had never been willing to put up with the wait. There was no wait that night, and in fact we enjoyed a wonderful meal with very attentive service (actually service in Shanghai restaurants is always attentive), surrounded by the most interesting all-black furniture and décor. The windows were all open, and my friend was extremely generous with my favorite beer, Quing Dao Gold, so who could possibly complain. In fact, my colleague suggested that he almost enjoyed the restaurant better like this!

Next time, I’ll complete my entries for this “Flight to Shanghai?story. In that entry, I will briefly describe my final days of meetings, my departure from Pudong Airport, my flight to Bangkok, and my arrival at Don Muang Airport itself. I will also venture a few meditations on the present state of travel and the economy in Asia, primarily as a way of affectionately completing my “Journey?

Glenwood Irons

Written by Dr. Glenwood Irons. Published with permission.

Breaking news for those who are planning to travel to Shanghai:

All people returning from SARS affected areas will be required to take a two-week mandatory quarantine at home and their body temperature will be taken by inspectors twice every day

This has affected a lot of persons, including my reader Caroline and Annie. They are living in Shanghai but happen to be in Hong Kong right now.

Reaction from the public

In the 36 comments followed the news on Sina.com, more than half of people thought highly of this regulations, with only 3 – 4 negative comments. Here are some samples:

Very good actions! IP:218.22.254.*

If it is rolled out 3 months ago, the situation will be better. IP:218.80.61.*

We should do it earlier! IP:210.22.128.*

It seems a lot of commenter come from Shanghai :-(

Reasons

I think the reasons behind this rule are the four new SARS cases recently found in Shanghai. Although the government is suggesting people not to travel, especially those who are in SARS affected areas, people are still attending meetings, visiting friends, sightseeing… The four cases are two couples coming from Beijing and visited a lot of places in Shanghai and causing 200+ people be quarantined.

Now, with the order, a one day meeting will become a 15 day meeting. This will greatly discourage travel. I believe a lot of meetings will be cancelled for this reason. I believe the goal is to reduce the travel itself, instead of really quarantine people – the quarantine is too long and I don’t think any company spend the 14 days for a meeting – it is the most expensive meeting possible.

Now, anyone who return or arrives in Shanghai need to stay at home/hotels for 2 weeks.

Will it be carried out

My doubt is, whether the rule can be carried out? Who will audit if the travelers are following the rule? It is a big concern – I am not against any traveler, just wondering if the rule can be implemented.

The daily color label for taxis gave me a surprise because I have never seen a rule carried out so well in Shanghai – better than the traffic rules. I have never seen a taxi failing to stick the new label yet. On the contrary, the other rule, like the “no spitting” rule seems to be just rules. The fine has been increased to 200 RMB, but no body is monitoring it – I don’t know who will issue the fine ticket yet – it is still a question in my head but there is no body to ask. People are still spitting everywhere as before.

According to the announcement, all people coming back or visiting Shanghai need to report to the local resident committee or CDC within 24 hours of arrival and an inspector will be assigned to take your body temperature twice a day – If you ask me, I guess it is very likely this part will be implemented very well. Why? Because Shanghai has a very solid resident committee organization in any xiao qu (residential area). Whenever there is strangers in the area, they can feel it. I see the posters stating: “For safety of yourself and for your family, you need to report any suspected new comers to the area to the residential committee”. This is a very unique phenomenon in China.

For Hotels, I think it is even easier than the residential areas.

Conclusion

I will keep tracking how well this rule will take effect. My guess is, this rule may works as well as the daily-color-label rule for taxis.

6 SARS cases in Shanghai now. It is an alert. Althought there is only 4 new cases, it is 200% increase in the last few days by simply mathatics calculation. With the new cases, the alarm level of Shanghai increases to the new level after the level increased in April 21. (the level of precaution measured are judged purely by my personal feelings of the city, instead of any official numbers or announcement).

The club of the residential garden closed today. I am not sure if they are taking proactive actions to prevent SARS or take reactive actions when there is no customers.

At the same time, I heard that the College Entrance Examination will continue to be held on June 7, 8 in Beijing and the date for the exam country-wide will not be changed. That means millions of middel-school gratudate student will take the exam in the two days. It is a hard decision to make.

At the same time, TOFEL, GRE and HSK were postponed already.

Pictures about the city

Here are some more pictures about the cities in SARS. (Chinese sites)

Entry 2, 5 May, 2003

In A Journey of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe was very keen to keep a day-to-day account of all the ways in which he saw the Great Plague affecting his fellow countrymen. He often noted grisly details of how an individual would seem quite normal one day, then suddenly the next day, the same person would begin to cough violently and within a few short days after would die, usually at home. There were, of course, individuals, even in Defoe’s time who contracted the Plague, but who survived by some miracle, and Defoe himself was one of those.

But, luckily for Defoe, air travel was completely unheard of in the 18th century, so that particular fear wasn’t on his list of concerns. Such is not the case for those of us who wish to travel anywhere these days, and for those of us who wish to visit China, even Shanghai, there is great concern with respect to air travel. But, as I mentioned in my previous installment, my two flights to Shanghai from Toronto and then Vancouver, seemed rather less of concern than I had thought at the outset.

So, as we began our descent into Pudong International Airport, I was filled with the usual excitement I have upon arrival in this very interesting part of the world. It was great to see the rice fields (not that there are very many left out there), and also to see the ships heading out to sea. Pudong Airport is almost an hour drive from the downtown area of Shanghai, so it almost seems rural when one views it from the window of a Boeing 767. Besides that, after twelve hours in a metal tube, even the Business section starts to become rather claustrophobic. Suffice it to say that, despite all the concerns about SARS in China, I was more than a little excited to be returning to this most amazing of places.

As we taxied to what is called the “bridge?in airport terminology, we were informed by the Chief Flight Attendant, a rather dapper Hong Kong Chinese with a stern way of putting things in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, that the Chinese Government required us to stay in our seats until our temperatures were taken by a Customs Nurse. If we didn’t conform to this rule, we would be kept on the plane and sent back to Vancouver!! Needless to say, this made some passengers apprehensive, but when the nurse arrived, I could see that this wouldn’t take terribly long. She pointed an infra red light at our wrists, and then read out the number to the Flight Attendant, who in turn wrote the number on our Chinese “Quarantine?Report. These Reports have been required for years by Chinese Customs, but they are taken quite seriously these days.

Well, as luck would have it, my reading came up at 32 Celsius, about the temperature of a recently deceased body! The nurse simply laughed at this, observing that I was indeed alive and kicking, and simply moved on to the next passenger. I told the Attendant to write ?5?on the form. This isn’t to say that I hadn’t wondered a little bit about my own health at this point. The chap in front of me, a Shanghainese who had been coughing and sneezing throughout much of the trip, also had the nasty habit of spitting into a plastic bag whenever the spirit moved him. Having traveled on trains in China, I have often sat beside people who felt themselves inclined to, as we say in English, hork themselves silly throughout a three-hour train ride, but I hadn’t had yet had this particular pleasure in the Business section of an aircraft. In fact, the Chief Flight Attendant (I mentioned he was Hong Kong Chinese) was very irritated by our resident horkmeister, not least when he frequently offered his spent tissues to the Attendant, in the hope (I suppose) that the Attendant would actually put the things in the waste for him.

Okay, so the fun was over, and we were now all healthy enough to leave the plane. A rather long walk later, we found ourselves passing through an infra red temperature screening device, with a number of medical staff watching as we passed through. I would have liked to see what I looked like on their side, but of course we were all ushered towards the Customs queue. I was actually a little nervous about this, as my visa had expired a couple of days before my trip, but I couldn’t renew it because the visa offices in Canada had been closed for the May holiday week, and I had only reorganized my trip at the last moment when the SARS outbreak was announced in Beijing.

As luck would have it (bad luck, I supposed), the Customs Officer decided that my note (in Chinese) explaining the visa problem simply wasn’t enough for him, so he sent me over to the Visa desk, back through the infra red screening. I managed to find a chap sleeping in the office behind the desk, and I showed him the letter of invitation from a colleague here in Shanghai. He disappeared for about ten minutes, returning to tell me he was waiting for a fax from my colleague, affirming I suppose that I had indeed received such an invitation, and if he didn’t receive it in five minutes, I would be “deported? Well, I have a through ticket to Bangkok, which I had booked in Business for just such an eventualilty, but my colleague managed to get the fax into the Visa Office in time, and the chap behind the desk was even kind enough to take my picture and put the visa right into my passport.

So, about an hour after I left the plane, I was in a taxi, heading to my flat near the People’s Square. Now, almost everyone (including me) had been wearing masks when we left the plane, but I noticed that few people were wearing masks once we got outside to the taxi stand, and in fact the cab driver who picked me up wasn’t wearing a mask. I felt a little foolish at that point, especially as the driver had both front windows open, and at 120kph, there was a driving gale inside the care. So I took the mask off, made some idle chat with the very little Chinese I had learned since my last trip, and sat back to enjoy the mask-free environment inside the car.

Eventually we crossed the amazing Nanpu Da Qiao (Nanpu Bridge), and I surprised myself by actually reading the characters which announce that incredible structure ?and we were suddenly into downtown Shanghai. And there were virtually no masks, no bank-robbers?convention of white masked people, as one sees in the newscasts about Beijing. In fact, downtown Shanghai looked, sounded and smelled much like it had on my last trip in February of this year. The fact that my arrival was on a Sunday made Shanghai seem a little quieter than normal, but that was the only change I noticed.

Until I arrived at my newly rented flat here in the New Harbour Service Apartments, near People’s Square in Shanghai. Not that the “difference?was particularly startling, but the chap at the reception asked me to fill out one more form than normal, a form which requires that my temperature be taken every day, at the reception, and that someone there witness the number which is filled in.

So, after a very short night sleep (I always find it difficult to sleep through the night for my first few nights in Asia), now I am ready for my meetings at colleges and universities in Shanghai and Pudong over the next few days.

Once I have had a chance to see the city over these few days, I will write my third entry, as that will give readers a true sense of how this amazing city is reacting in this year of the Plague.

Glenwood Irons

Written by Dr. Glenwood Irons. Published with permission.

Entry I

First of all, I must make an apology to Daniel Defoe, the great English writer of the 18th Century. Defoe is probably most famous for writing Moll Flanders, but I’m thinking at this moment of his Journal of the Plague Year, in which he describes in some detail the horrors of living in England during one of the last Great Plagues. Defoe had a rather practical approach to the mayhem which surrounded him some 300 years ago, so I will try to keep some of his narrative interests in mind.

I live in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, a small city of about 130,000 people, situated about 15 minutes by car from Niagara Falls, and about 60 minutes from Toronto. St. Catharines and in fact the Niagara Region as a whole have no cases of SARS. However, Toronto, is at present the North American city which has been hardest hit by SARS. Most readers will know that the SARS outbreak in Toronto began when a Chinese Canadian woman returned on the 23rd of February from a trip to Hong Kong, unknowingly infected with the virus. She entered a Toronto hospital, and spread the virus to numerous medical staff, finally expiring herself soon after. The virus is now said to be under control in Toronto. Nevertheless, it seems I am traveling from one SARS affected city to another.

I left St. Catharines on a Saturday morning, 3rd of May, in this year of the plague, 2003. My early departure from my wife and two daughters was uneventful, save for the fact I had to leave at 6am, and after only about 5 hours sleep. Driving to Toronto was rather enjoyable on a cool May morning, as the normally heavy traffic was in fact nowhere to be seen. Upon arrival at Toronto International Airport, I parked my car and proceeded to the ticket counter to pick up my prepaid ticket for the long journey ahead. There were the usual check-in formalities, along with the strict security which is now employed at all airports, and as luck would have it, I received my earlier-requested upgrade to Business Class at the last minute, just as I was about the board the plane.

The flight from Toronto to Vancouver was uneventful, and in fact there was no sign of the ubiquitous masks which one sees in television footage of airports in Canada and most particularly in Asia. On the other hand, there were many Chinese on the flight, as Vancouver and Toronto are home to hundreds of thousands of Chinese Canadians. In fact, all passengers seemed as comfortable as I during the five hours it takes to get from Toronto to Vancouver, and I soon found myself leaving the plane and heading straight to the Star Alliance lounge to wait for my flight from Vancouver to Shanghai. There were a few more masks in evidence as I walked to the gates which display flights to Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other parts of Asia, but there seemed to be no other indication of the virus which has made life miserable for much of the Chinese-speaking world.

When I arrived at the gate to board the flight to Shanghai, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself upgraded to Business Class again. I do a great deal of flying in the business I conduct for my university, so I normally request upgrades well in advance, but there is no guarantee that such upgrades will be given out these days. However, at the boarding gate, while waiting for my upgrade to be processed, I also noted that many more of the passengers, that is to say Chinese passengers, were wearing the heavy N-95 masks which I had learned are the benchmark mouth and nose covering for most travelers. However, the real indication of difference between this and previous flights I have taken to Shanghai, was the reduction in passengers, particularly in the Business section of the Boeing 767. Rather than the normally full Business section, there were only 10 seats out of a possible 30 which had passengers. I asked the Chief Flight Attendant about this, and he said that the Air Canada flights to Shanghai, Beijing and of course Hong Kong were being reduced considerably, and depended on whether there were enough passengers to make the trip. Up until the SARS outbreak, there were daily flights to Beijing and Shanghai (on Air Canada), daily flights to Hong Kong, and some days even saw two flights to Hong Kong. The fact that flights are being cancelled, however, should not surprise anyone, as there is a great deal of concern on the part of everyone who watches the news coming out of China.

If lower number of passengers wasn’t in itself disquieting enough, the Captain announced that we should be ready to have our temperatures taken before leaving the plane in Shanghai. One hopes that one doesn’t pick up a cold or fever during the 12 hour flight, but on the other hand, such a precaution is probably warranted under the circumstances. The Captain also announced that we would be taking a very northern route on this flight, past Nome Alaska, down through Siberia, then over a bit of North Korea, Japan and finally into Chinese airspace. This seems to be a rather convoluted routing, but the headwinds (we’re told) would make this necessary. I think I’m more concerned about flying over North Korea than I am about the risk of SARS.

That will probably change when I get to Shanghai, but it is worth noting that there are very important issues here, many of which seem to go unnoticed in the larger discussion of the virus outbreak in Asia. Viral outbreaks are not, of course terribly unusual, particularly in China. This one has received a great deal of publicity, and it certainly is a cause for concern and extra precautions, but the nose-dive which China’s economy is presently experiencing is also of very real concern. In the past few years, Shanghai itself has experienced double-digit growth, while China as a whole has also experienced extremely high growth. If the perception as well as the reality of SARS is not soon brought under control, then China and much of the rest of the world, is likely to find that the problem of SARS has gone much deeper than any of us have been able to observe so far.

In my next installment, I will describe the trip through Customs in Shanghai, and I will also give a “foreigner’s?glimpse of life in that city on a Sunday afternoon and evening.

Glenwood Irons

Written by Dr. Glenwood Irons. Published with permission.

According to Shanghai Morning Post, two more SARS cases have been confirmed. They are a couple traveling to Shanghai. 42 intimate contacter and 63 indirect contacter have been tracked and related locations have been quarantined.

This moring, when I chat with my friend Willie Liu of CultureXChina.com on MSN Messenger, he quoted:

With SARS, All We Have is Time

He is absolutely right.

Long holiday, no outting

May holiday used to be called “Golden Week”, millions of people goes out to their dream travel destinations. With SARS, all travel lines to outside Shanghai paused, including the nearby areas (Chinese site).

What would you do?

If you have a long vacation of 5 days and you cannot go anywhere outside the city, and you need to avoid any public places in the city, what will you do?

Willie bought a bicycle and rode it for 5 hours yesterday – well, a very nice way to recreation. My wife and I went to the near by Kangjian Park and flew a kite for the whole morning on the large grass land. In the afternoon, we walked to IKEA – it is about 20 minutes’ walk and bought some new chairs, tables and lamps and set them up in the Yangtai. (we regret that we went to IKEA since 40% of the customers were wearing masks – so we also put on our masks – it is really uncomfortable.)

With so much time, we tried lots things we have never tried before. We even wandering on the nearby streets and finally reached many new territories. We discovered some new stores and new parks near our house, really surprising.

The city is very considerate. I heard the Finance Channel of Shanghai TV even changed all their scheduled finance programs and began to broadcast soap-opera continuously for the who afternoon, just to entertain the boring people staying at home.

The government is suggesting everyone to stay at home and read books. I read almost all the advertisement on my newspapers. Then I begin to read some books that were bought years ago – well, it is all because we have nothing to do.

What is S.A.R.S

S.A.R.S. means Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

Now it also means

S-Support

A-Amor

R-Responsibility

S-Solidification

Quoted from Peking University News Net via Xinhua Net via KLOGS.

Check out the pictures of the doctors fighting with SARS on the first line (via KLOGS).

Appendix: SARS Daily Report 10:00 PM, May 2, 2003 (source)

New:179 (Beijing:96, Shanghai:0) Total:3799

Recently, most of the days are sunny. The spring comes to Shanghai. It is exactly the best time for outing. If there were no such SARS disease, millions of people should have started their travel to various tour destinations. Now, most of the plans were cancelled.

I have get used to the impact of SARS

The anxiousity will release with time passing by – the situation didn’t go worse in Shanghai. The disinfection and precautions are confirmed while the rumor did get confirmed (which means they are rumor in fact).

Taxi disinfection confirmed by other sources

I talked with taxi drivers to get first hand information about the city. Today, Arwen told us that “two managers have been fired due to their careless and ignorance of disinfection”.

Luo’s dinner in Hongkong

I focused more on Beijing and Shanghai than on Hongkong. My reader Luo shared with us about his dinner experience in Hongkong.

As with Shanghai, all the waiters and food handlers are required to wear surgical masks. They are suppose to keep the dishes covered until they are brought to your table.

Leaving China

These days, many expat leaves the city they live in China. Anna, our top commenter in April, has decided to return to Phlippines. It is tough because they need to give themself a 10-day quarantine before they can see their relatives and return to their own home. But I appreciate their actions. This is the attitude of responsibility to others.

Caroline, another active reader, has decided to send her kids and hubby back to U.S.

I believe they are not the only two expats who decided to leave (or ask family to leave). I hope the SARS crisis will end very soon so they can come back again.

SARS Epidemic Map in China and Beijing

Today, DigitalBeijing gave two diagrams of SARS epidemic.

• China SARS Epidemic Diagram
• Beijing SARS Epidemic Diagram

Appendix: Top 10 commentor of the Month – April

I have posted the top 10 commentor (from the Sept 11, 2003 to April 3, 2003) at the begining of this month. One month has past. I want to post the list of top 10 commentor for April, 2003.

anna 29

Caroline 23

Luo 15

Shanghai Knight 9

Mainlander 8

Zhao 7

yo 7

Hao 7

Tim 6

Totally, 157 persons (distinguished by display name) posted 437 comments in April. Thanks for everyone to participate in this website. I have decided to give Top Commenter of the Month award to the top 3 commenters of every month.

So the April’s award winners are anna, Caroline and Luo.

Appendix: SARS Daily Report 10:00 PM, May 1, 2003 (source)

New:187 (Beijing:122, Shanghai:0) Total:3638

It is the worst of time. April is the hard time for people in China – among the worst in my life (26 years). The impact to everyone’s life is comparable with the year of 1989 and the flood in 1998. Today is the last day in April so we have some time to review the whole SARS event in this month – actually, all major events related to SARS happened in the month of April in China.

To open the links in this page in a new browser window, press SHIFT key while clicking on the links.

Statistics

Up to 10 AM, April 30, 2003, there are 3460 SARS cases country-wide. Among them 1440 cases were in Beijing. (Source: Sohu.com)

On Wangjianshuo’s blog, 24 articles were devoted to SARS, including 2 in March and 2 in Feburary. 322 comments were left in one month around the topic of SARS.

Summary

The course of development of SARS epidemic, the preventional actions and the media reports of SARS in China can be clearly divded into three stage, seperated clearly by two events:

1. First media conference on April 3, 2003, when Minister of Health first announced the SARS to the media.

2. The second media conference on April 17, 2003, immediate after which the sack of two officials were announced.

I will call the three stage as:

• Stage 1: Few reports, no actions.
• Stage 2: Lots of reports, few actions.
• Stage 3: Intensive reports, solid actions.

Let’s review the articles on SARS on Wangjianshuo’s blog to see the stages.

Stage 1: Few reports, no actions.

Feb 12: I first heard of atypical pneumonia from my classmates in Guangzhou on Feburary 12 (maybe few days before). I didn’t realize that this will be a global problem.

Feb 16: For days later, China Daily reported atypical pneumonia was under control. I was very happy to know the news. However, as I wrote, the anxiousity was not under control yet.

Mar 23: My friend asked me on MSN Messenger that “is it (SARS) bad in Shanghai?”. Well. I didn’t know anything about SARS at that time. It was the first time I heard of the term of SARS.

Mar 26: I was educated by the symtoms of SARS.

Mar 27: SARS hit the headlines of local newspaper for the first time. It said “there is no SARS in Shanghai”

Apr 1: SARS begin to cause a little bit panic in the city. People who have access to emails are among the first batch to get the rumor of SARS. Actually, the rumors sounded very scary. Most of them, however, proved to be completely fake two weeks later. Meetings began be to postponed.

Stage 2: Lots of reports, few actions.

After the media conference, the ban of newspaper report on SARS was lifted. Media began to discuss about SARS publicly.

Apr 6: Shanghai looks good since the rumor discontinued because of the media coverage began.

Apr 8: My expat readers began to participate in the discussion about their feelings about SARS in the city. SARS was a much more serious issue for them.

Apr 9: I said “Panic under contrl, SARS may not“, because although the media repeatly report there is no SARS cases in Shanghai, or there is only one SARS case in Shanghai later, I didn’t see any preventional actions around me yet.

Apr 10: Hospitals and hotlines setup in Shanghai.

Apr 11: More and more people from abroad were asking me “shall I cancel my trip to Shanghai?“.

Apr 15: Lots of SARS websites were put online.

Apr 17: This is the first article of my Daily Life in Shanghai. The positive sides is, all media (radio, TV, newspaper and websites) are talking about the preventional measures of SARS. The dark side is, the taxi driver told me they never disinfect their cars although TV news report said so.

Stage 3: Intensive reports, solid actions.

April 20 is the turning point. It is rare that a official were fired for their fault. After the sack of former health minister, the officials of the whole country were shocked and quick actions were taken.

Apr 20: 339 SARS in Beijing. May Holidy Cancelled.

Apr 22: All evidence proved that China is taking SARS seriously. Disinfection of the buildings and announcement of dangerous trains with SARS suspected patients happened.

Apr 23: Situation of SARS in Shanghai became severe. Disinfection went to the next level and the eight regulations from the Shanghai government really impacted everyone’s life – travel outside Shanghai restricted; masks for most service industries became must; temperature were taken at all ports.

Apr 24: Pictures in Beijing and Shanghai are better than thousands of word: the situation is worse, but the actions were solid.

Apr 25: The whole nation became more united than ever. Solidarity became the first priority. People of all industries and all cities were fighting agaisnt SARS. Moving stories hit the headlines of newspapers. I posted “Protect China – Not Only Against SARS” in response to the false report of some medias on China.

Apr 26: Daily Life – SARS related II. You will see very encouraging changes in Shanghai about the thorough work the government have done. It was the second reason why the city of Shanghai had much lower case of SARS. (The first reason was purely lucky).

Apr 27: WHO finally released the findings of the five-day investigation. It was a positive one.

Apr 28: Check what it was to have a dinner now in Shanghai.

Apr 29: Daily life – SARS related III. I felt safer now, although the threats of SARS were still there.

Apr 30: SARS Shanghai – April Review (this article) came out.

Chat with taxi driver for the third time

Taxi drivers are among the most sensitive people for any changes in the city. I initialized achat with the third taxi driver after SARS hit the city. If you still remember, the first taxi driver told me on April 17 that his car was disinfected once every month. The second taxi driver told me on April 23 that his car was disinfected every morning from April 21. Let’s see what the third taxi have to tell us after one week.

You see the green label at my front glass? We are required to return to taxi company once from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM the next morning everyday. The taxi company will organize disinfection for each car carefully. It is done very careful now. The cover of the seats are changed everyday.

Meanwhile, every taxi is equiped with a bottle of disinfectant. We are required to spay the disinfectant every noon when I leave my car for lunch. I will close all doors so the spray will work better. Then open all the windows after I return. If I meet any passenger who goes to hospital or I suspect he/she is ill, I will also spray the disinfectant after he/she leave.

Regarding the business, he said

It is totally a mess now, especially on weekends. On Saturday or Sunday, I cannot find anyone to take my car. Taxis began to line up outside building and residental areas. This can seldom seen before. Now we do it because waiting for two or three hours is better than wandering on the road, wasting the oil.

Hair solons

I went to have my hair cut today. Not surprisingly, all the servers wore maks. They also told me their customers decreased by 1/3. What surprised me a lot is, they even give me a mask and politely asked me wear it. Well – this is the first time I wear a mask for my whole life.

Chain stores

I visited C-Store at Caobao Rd. They are hanging notices at the window and on the counter, stating all the measures they have took to protect their customers against SARS. They even said sorry for the smell of the disinfectant in the air – very well done.

Everbright Exhibition Center

A large red back drop (about 5 meters X 2 meters) was placed at the entrance with large caption: “Everbright Is Safe!”. There are a list of their precaution measures.

The Bund Center

The sticker of “disinfected every hour” was sticked in all the elevators. It smells like a swimming pool.

Hotels

I visited Westin Hotel and found the descrease in customers is obvious. The lobby is empty and no many people are having dinner at the rush hours.

My friend told me that body temperature will be taken on the head everytime you return to the hotel – even if you just left for half an hour.

Changes of the country because of SARS

I read about the Chinese version of the analysis of the benifit SARS brings along the disaster. It is very interesting. I wanted to translate it into English. Before I began, I found expat Micah in Tianjin has already done so. He was so kind to give me the permission to cite the 26 changes of SARS here.

1. People are watching their personal hygiene like never before; new habits like the washing of hands are finally being learned.
2. Because people are taking care of themeselves, typical springtime illnesses like fevers are down this year.
3. The quality of medicine has increased, and old stock has been completely sold out.
4. The large scale precaution activities saved many masks, disinfectant and

   hygiene equipment manufactures.

5. The social status of medical personnel increased.
6. The hygiene of previously neglected public areas has been improved.
7. Privacy is more respected; people don’t visit unless they have specific business.
8. Wild animals are protected because nobody wants to eat them. (SARS saved the pandas! -ed)
9. Lots of work units went on vacation, so people could finally take that big holiday.
10. With less people on the street, the social atmosphere improved.
11. People are more willing to give up their seats on the bus-just give a little cough. (LOL -ed)
12. The telecommunications industry is prospering, as people hole themselves up in their rooms and only speak on the telephone.
13. Family members become nicer to each other since there is no where to go except staying at home.
14. Men are getting better at cooking; since they’re not doing anything they might as well help in the kitchen.
15. Reading books is fun again, because there are less entertainment options.
16. Nobody plays majiang or gambles with friends because they’re afraid of getting infected.
17. TV gets watched more often, so advertisers get more for their money.
18. Internet usage is up, computer viruses are more frequent, so anti-virus software makers prosper.
19. People are afraid to take the bus, so bicycle sales are up.
20. Snack sales are up, so grocers are happy.
21. Law and order has improved, ’cause who goes into anybody else’s home?
22. Business is slow for the ladies of the night, so AIDS transmission has slowed markedly.
23. The traffic situation has improved, and air pollution has fallen.
24. People who wouldn’t consent to open the windows are now willing to ventilate the room, so it isn’t as stuffy indoors.
25. Relatives won’t visit, new parents put off having kids, the population crisis is slightly relieved.
26. People learn to value health and life, and to stop fighting, bickering, being jealous and thinking of suicide.

I went to a Taiwanese restaurant for dinner at about 8:00 PM. It seems the regulation of “wearing masks for all dining industry staff” is well executed. All the staff are wearing masks – the small thin paper-made masks. This is the forth restaurants I visit for this week – KFC, a Japanese quick food restaurant, Shiquanshimei – a Chinese one and this Taiwanese one. All the staff of these four restaurants are wearing masks to protect them and to protect the customers.

After I sit down at the corner, a couple just paid the bill and left their seats. Within one minute, hardly did the couple stepped out of the door, the cleaning staff appeared at the desk and using the disinfectant spray to clean the table – the smell suddenly spread in the small room. More than that, she also disinfected the sofa the couple just sit in. About 2 minutes later, the complicated disinfection was completed. The cleaning lady turned and disappeared, leaving me alone in the room, very confused. I have a strange feeling that I don’t know whether she is doing the right thing or not. On one hand, I feel safe in this restaurants because it is assured that disinfection is thorough. On the other hand, will they use the same standard after I leave? Am I treated like a virus carrier? :-(

In the other block of the restaurants were 5 young men coming from Japan – you can always clearly tell Japanese from local people in China from the clothes and the faces. Two of them were wearing masks. What I totally cannot understand is that one of them were smoking while wearing masks – he just remove the masks for a little opening, smoke the cigarette and cover his face again using his masks – unbelievable. :-)

Discussion and debating

Today, on my blog, some hot discussion on the politics of China happened. Check the conversation between Tom, Luo and Zhao. – check the discussion from the most bottom one backward will give you a more clear of the whole story. I’d like to thank everyone involved to discuss the topic – by exchanging the ideas, we have a better understanding of the world. I will not comment on either side of the debat – just to keep as objective in this blog as possible – I hope I will be your eyes in the city of Shanghai and report what I see, hear and smell. I hope my feelings can be recorded as it is – I can be subject but at least you know that one guy in Shanghai is thinking this way – this fact is objective. Does it make sense?

WHO’s report not fully covered by media

Before the release of WHO’s report in Shanghai, many medias spent a lot of time guessing the result and stated that the actual number will raise dramatically after WHO’s visit. However, after the press conference in April 26 was held, and the preliminary findings were released later, I didn’t see the expected result to be covered by media. I searched Google News for the next two days. The only report comes from Eastday.com, a local media group based in Shanghai. Till 1 hour ago, the first report on this conference were found at UN’s website. Somewhat strange but I don’t want to comment on this.

More Chinese SARS Blogs

Klogs is reporting SARS from a unique perspective. Good to read. He posted a picture of 15 masked faces today. On this entry, you can see photo that the Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was having lunch in the Beijing University (correct me if I made mistake here).

Get Notification when New Entry is Published on this Blog

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(((((((( Wangjianshuo’s blog Update: My Dinner Impacted by SARS ))))))))

April 29, 2003

=============================================

I went to a Taiwanese restaurant for dinner at about 8:00 PM.

It seems the regulation of “wearing masks for all dining

industry staff” is well executed. All the staff are wearing

masks – the small thin paper-made masks. This is the forth

restaurants I visit for this week – KFC, a Japanese quick food

restaurant, Shiquanshimei – a Chinese

=============================================

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Preliminary findings of the WHO Shanghai team

A WHO team of six experts, in Shanghai since Monday, has provided a preliminary report of its findings. The team was invited by Shanghai authorities to assess the SARS situation in China’s second largest city.

Among its activities, the team examined the SARS surveillance and reporting system, investigated rumours that the case burden might be higher than officially reported, and visited 10 health facilities, 3 district Centres for Disease Control, and the municipal Centre for Disease Control. The team was given free access to all requested data, patient registries, and facilities, which were visited on very short notice.

The team found no evidence of systematic underreporting of cases, and concluded that the level of preparedness and response was good. Reporting of cases appeared to be open, frank, and accurate. Over the past 3? weeks, authorities designated two hospitals as dedicated to the treatment of SARS patients and set up cough and fever clinics. The team also found a very high level of government commitment to tackle the SARS problem.

Many questions remain about why Shanghai has been spared a SARS outbreak on the scale of that seen in Beijing. Had a larger number of cases occurred, it is not certain whether the systems presently in place would have been able to cope.

Source: WHO official website

Actions

SARS is a disaster for China. Fortunately, we can see some good effects of the disease anyway. Changes happen subtlely.

• People pay more attention to personal hygiene and quit bad habits. The fine has raised and the public are aware, so spitting and littering (two very bad habits with bad reputation worldwide) are much less. Washing hands and cleaning the living place become the new habits.
• Government efficiency is improved. More and more officials sacked for failure of prevention SARS. I just read about the director and other leaders of Changsha Disease Control and Prevention Center was fired. (Changsha is the capital city of central China’s Hunan province)
• Media become more transparent – more newspapers are critising the government which is very rare before. This brings value to provide feedback so lowlights have the opportunity to become highlights.

(some ideas comes from Changyu’s SARS website (Chinese site))

Paused Marriage Registration

Beijing has paused issuing any new marriage certificate to the public. Source: Beijing Government Official Website. This aim to reduce the wedding ceremony to be held in Beijing.

Quota for Beijing taxi lowered

The taxi business in China uses the model that the taxi driver will hand-in certain fixed amount of quota to the taxi company and the rest will be the income. Impacted by SARS, the quota is lowered by the taxi administration in Beijing. Source: Sohu.com

Taxi and buses labeled disinfection

Shanghai ordered all taxi, buses and metro trains to disinfect everyday and put the color “disinfected” label on the window. (Refer to my entry yesterday for order details) I applause for this action but doubted if it can implemented effectively. Today, to my great surprise, all the taxis and buses I have seen (about 40+ of them) are followed the order perfectly. This is very encouraging.

Photos

Saliven posted a group of pictures of lots of people wearing masks on April 26, 2003. Very nice done.

Beautiful girls wearing masks in the Shanghai Auto Expo.

Stores advertisement about the Anti-SARS medicines. There are some posters for SARS, street scene of April. Meanwhile, the book market at Wenmian was closed (the last picture).

This is the second flash of dialy life from Shanghai in the SARS times. This is a sunny, warm Saturday in early spring. I stayed at home the whole day today.

Fast Food Restraunts

KFC in Metro City of Xujiahui changed face from yesterday night. All staff – the counter, the cleaning staff, the cooking staff and managers wore large white facial masks. Whenever a customer leaves his/her seat, the cleaning staff will rush to the seat and spay disinfectant onto the table, then clean it. This does not enhance neverness at all. On the contary, I feel very relax and safe when I ordered by “Suite 1” (21.50 RMB). ll many people there, although not that crowded.It is easier to find a seat now. There were still two tables available when I got my plate – this is seldom seen for the rush hours.

Office building disinfected

A notice in the building I worked in was placed in the lobby. It announced the emergency phone number of SARS contact person of the property management company and put the schedule of disinfection.

Chat with a friend

A friend of my just called and let me know she just returned from a business trip to Beijing. Oh! I asked about the situation. She told me that the airport of Shanghai is checking every passenger carefully. She filled the form and went through the time consuming physicial examination. She will stay at home for some days before she go out.

Taxis and buses

According to Shanghai government’s official website, the city’s transportation administration announced the new transportation viechele disinfection regulartion.

Starting from April 26 (today), all the 18496 buses, 46000 taxis and 324 metro trains are required to stick “Disfinected” label before put into operation. This is another solid action to prevent the spreading of SARS via transportation system. It always help the public to descrease panic.

Daily infection is requierd, so they have design 7 color labels:

Monday brown  Disinfected 

Tuesday bluegreen  Disinfected 

Wednesday lilac  Disinfected 

Thuresday green  Disinfected 

Friday lightyellow  Disinfected 

Staturday lightgreen  Disinfected 

Sunday skyblue  Disinfected 

The sticker need to appear on the glass of the doors where passengers get aboard the buses. Taxis need to stick it at the right corner of the front glass. The sticker also will be seen on the window beside the doors.

All citizens are entitled to call the administrations if they find any car not follow the regulations. I also post the numbers here for your reference:

Buses 63175522

Taxi 63232150

Metro lines: 64483666 63189000

Other transportation 65956925

Transportation information 962000

The area code of Shanghai is 21 and the country code of China is 86

Meanwhile, to prevent SARS from spreading, all cars must not use air conditionings and must open the window for enough fresh air circulation.

So no wonder Caroline commented at 4:11 PM:

Have you seen how the cabs in Shanghai are so shiny today?? Clean!!! Even the blue ones and the maroon ones are clean! The roads are swept so often! And of course spitting is now a 200rmb offense in Shanghai! Wow!

And what a beautiful day it is outside!

Posted by: Caroline on April 26, 2003 04:11 PM

Online shopping

After the government’s suggestion to stay home and avoid travel, many people are staying at home recently. The shopping malls are less crowded than before. On the contary, online shopping, which is warm but not hot this year, become extremely hot.

When I logged on to the one of the largest online (and offline) chain supermarket LianHua’s website, a notice pop up appeared (Chinese notice and will exist for only limited time. The link may be broken when you try). Here is the excerpt:

Impacted by SARS, customers tend to choose to shop online. This caused the order of this week increased by 120%. Some goods are out of stock. At the special time, solidarity is the first priority. We are trying our best to make sure your goods are delivered on time. Our staff will wear masks when delivering the goods to your door…..

I bought some rice, water and other neccessities from the website – it can be deliver to my home in 3 hours. It is very good, right?

WHO’s team in Shanghai

WHO held the press conference in Portan-RizCarlton Hotel at 17:30 yersterday after investigating Shanghai’s SARS situation for five days. We are longing for the result of the inspection.

According to the announcement, WHO think highly of Shanghai on SARS. I watched part of the press conference. It was on Shanghai TV this morning.

“We have not found the Shanghai government to have flaunted the numbers or covered up the outbreak,” said Keiji Fukuda, a member of the United Nations agency’s team. “Based on what we have seen, the case numbers reported are in the ballpark.”

The team attributed the small number of SARS cases in Shanghai to two factors: luck and the city’s deliberate precautions.

“SARS is not a worldwide epidemic yet and the incidence of the disease is quite different in different regions. Moreover, local health authorities have gained much experience and lessons from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Beijing to conduct effective measures such as avoiding hospital infection and establishing a strict monitoring system to identify SARS cases and suspected patients and to conduct separation measures,” said Keiji Fukuda.

Source: Eastday.com

Two cases in Shanghai

Lots of friends outside Shanghai asked me whether I believe in the number of 2 confirmed cases in Shanghai, while Beijing and Guangzhou have much more.

Well. I only happen to live in Shanghai and I don’t have any data to support the guess of either side. I can only judge based on my feeling and my observation of very limited part of the city.

I am convincined that the number of 2 cases are reasonable and very likely to be true. Here are some reasons why I believe in the official numbers the government announced. DISCLAIM: MY PERSONAL OPPION ONLY

• Shanghai is doing a good job to take precautions. As you can see from this article and from the previous obverservation, all the actions are taken promptly and orderly. Disinfections go on everywhere; education on the SARS knowledge can be seen whenever you go; Passengers visiting Shanghai are taken temperature and filling travel history forms; and all big events have been canncelled.
• Quarantine immediately and in the right scope was taken promptly. There are lots of rumors, most of them are confirmed to be rumors only. I’d like to give you an example here.
  • On April 24, a suspected SARS case was found in the Shanghai Teachers University. It is within 10 minutes distance from my home. I heard the rumor first that someone was infected. I checked the website and found the university has put the announcement of the case on the homepage of the website. According to the notice, the student with last name Wang came back from Beijing on April 13 and shown the symptoms on April 23. The dorm of patient’s was quarantined immediately (the 3rd and 4th floor of the No. 6 dorm). People with contact with the patient was under observation too.
  • In the next day, Miss Wang was announced to be free of SARS.
  • On April 25, the quarantine for the dorm in Shanghai Teachers University is removed and all the students in the dorm became free again.

  In this case, I believe the government, the disease control center and the university have done perfectly to reduce the protential risks of SARS. We can clearly see the relationship between the low case number and the servious attitude.

• The disease control network is better in Shanghai. I just remember about one year ago, I had a loose bowels and went to see a doctor of the No. 8 Hospital. The doctor was very alerted and asked me if there is anyone else in my company are having the same symptoms. He added that if he found more than 2 cases of the same disease, he are required to report the cases to Disease Control Center immediately. I felt very suprise at that time because I didn’t believe that only two cases will be reported – I thought it should be at least 5 or 10. This experience let me know Shanghai has a disease report and control system in place already.

After tracking the situation of SARS in Shanghai and other places in China for sometime, I believe it is time make the following announcement and fight back against some false statement.

China is a great country – as it always is

Recently, more and more media pay much more attention on the dark side of China. It seems critizing the Chinese government on SARS is their full time job. Some even try to isolate China – it is definitely wrong. As a Chinese citizen, I cannot accept it.

Actually, the western media played a positive role in the case of SARS situation in China. I know that. My friends in U.S. told me that media is always pushy, which help the truth come out. The strong interntional pressure is a big factor for the recent changes in the battle against SARS. This is widely recognized by the people in China. I saw some wonderful posts in some BBS. They analysized the course of the situation and pointed out it should be the Chinese media who should have reported the situation, insteading of waiting for foreign medias. I want everyone to notice the change happened.

Before last Sunday when the Health Minister was sacked, the government did response slowly to SARS, so does the media. These days, as I have described in the previous entries, the government and the media have taken solid actions to fight against SARS – disinfection is going on almost everywhere in the city and the government has put 2 billion RMB funding to fight against SARS. I believe the government has shown the responsibility. I personally fully trust the government has the ability to overcome the difficulties the whole nation is facing.

United – tighter than ever

Maybe the outside world didn’t notice that the people my country have united tightly together now. SARS is a crisis in the history of China and the nation united to fight. I visited the BBS of Nanjing University – one of the hundreds of university BBS. Students are discussing the topic actively – there come about 2 – 4 posts for every single minute (11666 posts in 10 days). I am deeply moved by the stories they are telling.

• Doctors have devoted themselves to the SARS patients days and nights. Lots of them even got infected and some them died when saving others’ lives;
• Students are sending flowers and cards to those doctors and patients, encouraging them and pray for them;
• Organizations have denoted money or goods to help in various ways;
• People are claiming that they will overcome whatever difficulties to help prevent the virus from spreading.
• I even heard an online game company even opened their fee-based game server to the public, hoping to help keep people in their homes and reduce outting (heard from my friend, not confirmed).

This is the united nation of China. I don’t think the reporters of Times really understand how tough it is to fight against SARS when they repeated report the incorrectness of SARS figures.

I Love this country!

I strongly protest the statement about China on SARS.com

There are many very good website out there reporting accurate and helpful information like Tim’s SARSWatch.org, and Docbear’s SARS Daily Update. They show their professionalism and responsibility by providing updated and USEFUL information. However, there are some bad sites like sars.com. I was shocked to see the statement on http://www.sars.com. Why did they use the large red color to state “avoid traveling to Hong Kong and China” and even announced ” It even stated:

Traveling to China, Asia? Don’t forget to say good-bye to your friends & family.

What is SARS? SARS is a mystery illness causes severe acute Respiratory syndrome and can kill you real fast.

The only proprose of this site, as I can see, is to enhance panic and attack China and Asia. Getting a good domain name does not mean you can say whatever you want.

Be responsible. Refuse to spread rumor.

One of the best things of this blog is to have a group of people working together to collect and post useful information using the comment system of MovableType. I’d like to thank a lot of persons who stayed with us, commented on this blog and provided valuable information in this tough situation. They are: Mainlander, Caroline, Anna, Annie, Hao, Tim, Yo, Karp Boonthavi, Randy, etc (and many others). The information on prevention and proper use of equipments are exteremely useful for those seeking for protections.

Meanwhile, with more and more vistors coming to this site everyday, I’d like to call attention to everyone to continue to keep the high standard of posting and ensure the information we post are as accurately as possible. If there is any unconfirmed information, or sounds like rumor, please specify – “not confirmed” or “treat it as rumor only”. We are here to learn, to share, and to help. We don’t want to confuse people, dislead people, or even worse, causing panic among people.

Stay calm and healthy, my friends. Best wishes to you and to the country.

Note: The content modified a little after published by Jian Shuo Wang.

Photos from Anzhen Hualian Shopping Mall – It is very encouraging to see all the sales persons were wearing masks. This demononstrated the preventional measures have been in place to fight against SARS.

Street photos of Beijing on the day of April 23. Much less people can be seen on the most crowded street in Beijing – Wang Fu Jing Street. People are wearing masks, including the guards.

Photo credit: lowxu from Fengniao.com

Work Together – Fighting Against SARS

The following photos are popular on the Internet – I saw them from time to time in the email sent to me and on the public forums. An article on Qianlong.com provided a good summary of these photos. The title for the article is “United – It is the best medicine to fight against SARS”.

Copyright and credits belong to the original photographers.

The red characters state: Fight Against SARS, Protect our Homes. It is the AD used by the SARS chapaign.

This picture of the two young lovers is the symbol of love in the SARS times. People’s lives are affected; faces are covered by the masks; but the lover and the family are even closer with each other. Taken near the Beijing West Railway Station.

News reporters are well equipped but taking high risks to report SARS to the world.

Tianjin: train attendants were preparing to disinfect the train.

Taken at Shanghai Auto Expo. Volkswagen (VW) even prompted their brand on the facial masks. The show was closed yesterday ahead of schedule.

SARS Update – April 24

More and more companies are working out plans in the current situation. I have heard of the following actions were taken:

• Some company asks employees to stay in home and don’t need to come to office unless required.
• A company is encouraging employees to install ADSL, broadband network in case SOHO work is required.

According to some friends of mine, most universities have restricted people from outside the university to enter. Student ID is checked. Annie from Tongji University left comment on this page. She also confirmed this piece of news.

Universities also announced to pause all internship program in local companies. Official letters have been sent to employing companies to ask pause the internship for one month. This is to make sure the students won’t bring virus from the working places to school or spread the virus to other companies.

United – Protect China Against SARS

It is the special time and but it is not the worst of time. I saw a lot of solid actions were taken in the city and the people become more united during these situations. I am personally very confident that the epidemic will be stop soon. I solute for those doctors who fight day and night at the first line.

United – Protect China Against SARS

The atmosphere of today in Shanghai is most severe ever in Shanghai. The air seems to suddenly freeze these days.

Disinfection – real disinfection this time

When I talk with the Dazhong taxi 5 days ago, the driver told me his car is not disinfected at all although the Oriental TV is reporting all taxis are disinfected everyday. I recorded this under the Taxi driver section of the blog of that day. Today, I talked with another mid-aged taxi driver – he also comes from the Dazhong taxi company and he told me the following information:

My car is disinfected every morning. This actually started from this Monday. The seat covers are washed daily, while they are changed not frequently before – about once every week. We are also required to open the window during driving.

I feel very happy to see the real actions are finally being taken – not only the media report, since the false media reports will only control panic (in very short period of time) but cannot control SARS. I can still smell the vinegar-like disinfectant in the car. The 180 degree change happens on Monday – when the sack of Health Ministor and Beijing major were announced on Sunday.

When I returned to home, I found the elevator are still being disinfected on daily basis – it is good.

Business impacted

The taxi driver also told me that he faced 200 RMB revenue cut for SARS these days. On average, he can earn at least 600 RMB every day before. But now, 400 RMB per day is already a good number.

Taxi may not be the most impacted industry. I have changed to taking taxi everyday to and from work – so does some of my friends. Taxi is obviously safer than bus or metro. So the lose of huge reduce of out door activities can be compensated a little bit by the increase of ratio people taking taxis. But other industries are completely worse.

According to not confirmed information, the Shanghai Auto Show was cut from tomorrow – 3 days ahead of the ending date.

Shanghai: Eight regulations to control SARS

According to news report, Shanghai government has announced eight regulations to control SARS:

1. All passengers entering Shanghai need to check temperature and fill in the health declaration form. This applies to all entrance including air, train, ship, bus. Hotels needs to do the same for all guests.
2. Enhance prevention measures for schools and kindergarnders.
3. All public transportation vehecales and public places must be disinfected everyday. Planes, trains, long distance buses, cargos, metro, buses, taxies and all other kind of publich transportation viacles and stations, ports, dorms in building sites, schools, Internet cafes, bars, Karaoks, theaters, shopping malls, and other public places must be disinfected everyday and stick the disinfection mark with the date of the disinfection. Failure to keep compliant with the requires will be shutdown immediately.
4. Strictly control large scale activities. No large event with large amount of people gathering is allowed. Any organization should not organize any international or inter-provincial events. Scheduled events should be canncelled or postponed.
5. Strictly control meeting, tour and investigation to outside Shanghai. No organization should arrange any meeting, tour or investigation to places outside Shanghai. All travel agencies should stop any tour to other provinces. Tourism administrations should advice travel agencies in other provinces to cancel their tour groups’ trip to Shanghai. All people returning Shanghai from SARS affected areas are required to be observed for two weeks and be reported to local disease control organizations. All organizations should persuade people not to tour or travel. Returning people from SARS affected areas need to report to local health orgnizations and stay in home for at least two weeks.
6. Strengthen the professionalism of first-line workers. All health organization, airport, custom, ports, import and export quarantine, etc staff, public transportation staff, like on plane, train, ship, long distance buses must wear masks at work and take other neccessary precautions.
7. Announce the situation of epidemic and encourage supervising from the public. Continue to publish the status of the epidemic on all media and hold news conference weekly. All citizens should report any suspected SARS patients and will be granted prize for those whose report is confirmed. All parama staff need to investigate customers for cough or fever medicines and persuade them to go to see a doctor whenever possible.
8. All activities need to be ochrasted by the local district government first then by the parent organization.

Note: Above is my personal translation. For time being, I didn’t translated it word by word – some sentences are ignored. Due to limitation of my understanding of certain terms and English skills, some words may be translated wrong. This is just for your information. Please wait for the official translation. Please always include this disclaimer if you quote the content.

Very encouraging

Although the regulations let everyone realized the potential threats of the virus and strengthened the nervers atmosphere of the city, I have to say, this is exactly what we were expecting in the last one month. I thank the government to take the actions at last. The panic will also be controlled as long as the people understand the effective measures have been taken.

Latest from News at Ten of Shanghai TV Station

I recorded some piece of the latest information from The News at Ten from Shanghai TV Station. Again, this is the draft of the items for your information only. I cannot garantee the correctness of the recording – about 10% of the content may be misrecorded. They are listed in no particular order.

• Fine for bad habbits of citizens dramatically increased. Spitting will be fined 200 RMB instead of current 50 RMB. Litter ciggritte remains will be fined 100 RMB instead of 50 RMB. Dropping Gum will be fined for 200 RMB instead of 100 RMB. (my comment: the city is taking SARS as the chance to fight against some bad habits among the citizens)
• The Shanghai Auto Show is closed early in order to prevent SARS.
• The CAAC is returning air tickets free of refunding fee during the May labor day holiday. According to CAAC, tickets among April 30 – May 7 tickets can be returned without additional charge if they were bought before midnight last night.
• Beijing is closing most schools to prevent the spread of SARS.
• 1 millions students in Beijing were dismissed to home for two weeks and the coming mid-term examinations cancelled.
• Send SMS Message “NEWS” to 258088 (China Mobile) or to 958008(Unicom) for SARS related English breaking news.
• All students in one of the school in Shanghai need to check temperature every day – this has become a common practise in Shanghai.
• All students need to report to the school if their family members goes or returns out of the town – from the same schools.
• All theaters needs to be disinfected before every movie show.
• Beauty solon workers are required to wear masks at work
• All car or bus drivers are required to leave a detailed record about their health condition and the locations they have been. They will also need to take body temperatures at all toll station. Most drivers said they support th e policy. “SARS is a very serious problem and we are all concerned about it.” said one driver.

Conclusion: I got more alerted, but feel safer

The news reports and the actions taken have alerted all the citizens about the seriousness of the virus but I am feeling safer.

From my observation, the country is taking SARS very seriously recently.

SARS Prevention Campain

This afternoon, around 3:00 PM, a large red banner was hung just at the entrance of the residental garden I live in. On the banner, are the large white characters:

Do the work more thoroughly, more deep, more solid and more transparent,

Prevent SARS with benifit, with order, and with effectiveness

The same banner appeared in the nearby Tianlin 11th village. Meanwhile, the prevention knowledge has been widely distributed. I got the flyer of “Prevention of Infectious SARS” in the my mailbox this morning. The black boards with introduction of SARS, symptoms and prevention methods are placed in the entrances of the garden.

My building was disinfected

When I entered the elevator, I smelled something like vinegar. Then I noticed the disinfection history record on the wall. It reads:

April 21, 16:00 disinfected with 1:9 Acidum Peroxyaceticum

APril 22, 16:00 disinfected with 1:9 Acidum Peroxyaceticum

……

Acidum Peroxyaceticum C2H4O3 is the mostly used disinfectant here.

May Holiday Cancellation

Actually, I never thought the country will announce such as a big movement to cancel the May holiday. It is such a big movement. Millions of people were affected. People have to cancel their trip schedules and return the tickets. It is announced that airlines will return the full fund for tickets (April 30 to May 7)bought before 24:00 April 22. – Big actions, aren’t they?

Dangerous train: T151

It is announced that all passengers on T151 from Beijing to Qinghai province need to see doctors immediately. A SARS patient was found to get off the train in Gansu.

Actually, I have never seen an announcement like this before – bad news are seldom broadcasted to the whole nation. This time, I belive it is a big step moving forward.

Upper sleeping berths all sold out

I booked train tickets back home today. The sleeping berths offers three layer of tickets – upper, middle and lower. Traditionally, people will choose lower berth first since it is most convinient. But now, things completely changed. Now only the lower berths are available for the whole train since people think the higher they sleep, the safer they are. – It is a completely up-side-down world.

P.S. Thanks for zwaffle to pointed out a typo in my article – I wrote “Millions of people were infected” under the May Holiday Cancellation section while I meant “Millions of people were affected”. Sorry for that.