MSPeconomist

Any reports from the wild on what's actually happening and what it's like to be there now?

I've been in Wuhan (in particular, a business trip for almost a month), although not in about the last five years. Also, I know of one person who regularly posts here on FT and has ties to the city (relatives, so he probably visits more-or-less annually). [Best wishes to the extended family in a difficult time.]

Wuhan is a major city for industry, so it would normally get a fair number of international business travelers. In addition, I learned this week that there was a USA Consulate in Wuhan, although at least in the past, USA visa applicants were required to report to Beijing or Shanghai for interviews.

STS-134

There is a consulate, but the US State Department issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Hubei and withdrew all non emergency personnel from its consulate 2 days ago.

https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...ges/China.html

MSPeconomist

Yes, I know. This is why my post says that there "was" a USA Consulate in Wuhan. It's now closed for the foreseeable future, although apparently there are still a few staff members remaining to try to provide emergency services for any USA citizens left behind or stuck now in Wuhan.

invisible

Came today
The U.S. government is said to be arranging a flight to the U.S. evacuate Americans out of Wuhan

DaileyB

You were probably referring to me. I will be wechatting several family members and friends, and if there is news I will report it.

invisible

Due to unprecedented nature of quarantining such large number of population, could you please ask them to describe what daily life there now looks like?

• Do people go to work? If so, what type of work they do?
• What is currently open?
• If people go to work, how do they do it considering that all public and private vehicles now are not operating?
• How people are buy/stocking their supplies? Do they buy it online with some means of delivery or they have to get them by going in stores?
• Are people being paid if they are sitting at home?
• What do they do while sitting home?

Smiley90

I can't speak for it directly (and we might want to fold this into the other China-thread on the virus?), but my partner's aunt is currently in the hospital with it, in Beijing, so she has some knowledge of how things are. Most I know is that the numbers of cases is VASTLY understated, to the point where people are being held in hallways because the hospitals are too full (this not in Beijing, but from what she's being told about the situation).

Among people there's VAST differences in opinion of what's going on - from the pro-CCP "everything is fine don't worry everything under control media is overreacting to what's happening" to "this is all the CCP's fault and things are much, much worse than what they say". Hard to say which side is accurate, but I do believe that the case number is much higher than indicated.

I can ask for more info if there's a specific question.

JPDM

Understand that it is now CNY and nobody (or nearly nobody) is working for 2 weeks in any case. I have a Chinese friend who lives there and her family has no issue and her life is just normal as they were not planning any travel in any case.

MSPeconomist

France is supposedly negotiating with the Chinese government about trying arrange a flight to remove French citizens. Apparently France has/had a Consulate in Wuhan also.

I've seen numbers saying that the USA government evacuees (including families) are likely to number about a hundred and there will be between two hundred and three hundred seats on the flight. However, there are believed to be an estimated thousand USA citizens in Wuhan.

Jiatong

First, thanks for TB's comments in the virus thread. Not real sure of all the Hubei lockdown & overwhelmed hospitals. I am in BJ at the Weston Chaoyang on 3rd ring ( Sr. rate under $100 US this week) and watching CNA, BBC & MSNBC for news updates. The propaganda #'s are predictable, so multiply up..
Anyway 3rd ring is NOT busy, nor is subway line 10 here, probably normal for CNY anyway. I doubt school & work will happen this month, Universities are sending out notices not to travel back for class. Some SOE's have sent out notices of self monitoring of body temps. Events, local fairs & most tours are now cancelled as of sunday. Inbound BJ bus traffic is shut down, expecting more inbound shut downs to accelerate.
I moved my departure date up a month to early Feb, & no problem with the UA change, or cancelling the other planned spring travel.

STS-134

Are they staying put or trying to figure out how to get out? What's the perception among people inside the city about whether they'll be able to get proper medical care, if they happen to be unlucky enough to catch the virus?

jimmielin

I've spoken with a couple of friends who have (unfortunately) family stranded in Wuhan. Both of them told me that their family is fine. It's Chinese New Year so no one is working anyway, all public transport has been shut down, but I've heard conflicting reports of whether you can drive or not. One of them told me all roads are on lockdown and there are shuttles provided for local neighbourhoods, and another of them told me it's all fine. Streets are empty but prices are stable - it's the medical resources that are heavily in need of support but living means like groceries are seemingly OK. That's all I know and it sounds more comforting than the conflicting reports all over the place. I guess it's as good as it gets for a locked-down city with an ongoing viral outbreak...

Hope everyone is safe and healthy and this is all over quickly.

plunet

For those outside of China, think of Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) as equivalent in terms of business shutdown as Christmas might be in the UK. So things are very very quiet and the only usual activity would be to visit family (government recomdation to highly curtail) and local spring festival celebrations (largely cancelled).

Saturday was New Year's Day, but because it falls on the weekend the public holidays extend to Monday and Tuesday next week. But because of the huge volumes of migrant workers in China, it takes several days for everyone to get back to where they need to be, and for many enterprises next week is a part working week if they don't shut down completely.

The major factor against the Chinese authorities is the number of people displaced and expecting to travel over the next 7 days as the holiday comes to an end in what is usually accepted to the latter half of the largest human migration activity on earth. Are they going to cancel this return back after the holidays? If they do the impact in terms of national and global economic output could be considerable.

qpr

The government extended the holidays till february 2nd.

Loren Pechtel

His description also matches me. My wife is Shanghai-born.

So far I haven't heard anything from them that hasn't already been reported on here but keep in mind all the relatives we are in frequent contact with are elderly and thus not the best information sources.