Even though I could certainly and confidently say that it is safe to travel within China, it was really stressful months ago, in January, when I recall the period when I first came back to China. We did not take the virus seriously at first, while people took actions when the confirmed cases reached hundreds in Wuhan. When Wuhan was closed to prevent overwhelmed spread, the whole country took the highest public health crisis reaction mechanism immediately after it. The travel was strictly restricted, and people were highly recommended to stay at home. Everyone was required to wear masks. Almost all flights, high speed railways, and buses were cancelled. Even the highway was shut down. In my family, we really were afraid of COVID-19, so we tried our best to stay at home. Since my parents are relatively old, I went to the supermarket twice a week to get groceries, and vegetables to try and boost our immune systems. We spent about a month at home; then, the crazy “stay at home” restriction finally started to work out. I felt such improvement from the updated reports every day because the number of newly confirmed cases decreased. By the end of February, we began to hang out for a short time outdoors, but I always wore the mask.

Travel restriction within the country has gradually lifted since March, so my family drove from Beijing to Yulin, which is my hometown, a city in Shaanxi Province. We were required to do a 14 day quarantine at home since we traveled from outside of Shaanxi province. We barely went out to protect both my family and others. The situation continually got better during that period. The pandemic has almost ended here now in April. Schools generally reopened, although the large gatherings were still restricted and I haven’t been to the movie theaters or sport events for three months. Restaurants also reopened. I have rarely worn the mask recently, while people are still recommended to wear it when they enter places like shopping malls, train stations and so on. Fourteen day quarantine orders have been lifted in most parts within China, which means we do not need to be isolated if we haven’t traveled outside of China in the past 14 days. China paid a lot of attention to prevent potential cases of people coming into China from outside the country. The number of international flights that travel to China was under high restriction. Each airline company can only keep one round-trip flight to China per week. Beijing still has the most strict travel restrictions now: a person who leaves Beijing for a work trip may need to be quarantined when he/she comes back. On the other hand, schools in Beijing are scheduled to reopen on April 22.

The world is going through the same process that China has been through months ago, and I can certainly feel the difficulty the world is experiencing. The number of confirmed cases really scared me every day, but I observed a turning point recently. COVID-19 pandemic is a world crisis, and all of us are taking positive actions to fight with it. It’s not unbeatable. I believe everything will be alright as long as we take it seriously, and we will go through it together just like H1N1 or Ebola virus. Everything will be back soon, just give it a couple more days. Stay strong, and stay healthy.