On the way to quarantine.

by Eduardo Vallejo Aznar (China)

A leap into the unknown China

It was April 2009 when, after only 6 months living in Shanghai, Yargol, my “bro”, visited me. We would explore the East Coast with 200 dollars. Local Chinese food and endless hours in trains waited for us. Shanghai would be our base camp. I studied Chinese there so I was familiar with the city. A different story would be surviving in Beijing and Hong Kong. After few days skipping classes and partying we took a 10 hours night train to Beijing. We’d save some money sleeping on the way and we’d arrive in the morning. Great Wall, Forbidden city, Summer palace... Countless beautiful places to see. Next stop Hong Kong, 36hours train, hard seats, the cheaper the better. Interesting landscape, factories and houses all way long. As soon as we arrived in HK we went to the hostel my lovely Leming Chu booked for us. We didn’t give her many options with our 3 dollars/night budget. I couldn’t believe there’s a hostel there. Hygiene conditions were...bad. We arrived in the night so everyone slept. We took the first bunk bed we found and prayed to wake up alive next day. Morning we realized we shared room with 10 more people. Scared one from each other because normal people would never sleep there. Victoria Peak and party in Lan Kwai Fong, 7Eleven and music from the bars that didn’t allow us to come in. Two more days in HK and back to Shanghai in a 20hours train. As it was the end of our trip and we’re really tired we thought it’s worth it to spend our last money in two hard beds in the train. Yargol, exhausted because of this long trip, felt tired and had fever. He slept while I socialized with the neighbors. Surprisingly they’re asking for my friend’s health a lot, I couldn’t believe people were so nice! -Hey new friends, don’t worry, he got some temperature, he coughs a little, thanks for being concerned about my friend’s health! Few hours later, when we’re sleeping the train stopped. I knew from the very beginning they had stopped that train for us. Police closing the area, an ambulance arriving and people with white clothes and mask coming into the train. - Yargol, wake up! They came for us!! - Edu, bro, you crazy, why they should come for us? - don’t know man, but I feel it. In less than a minute we saw the Men In White (MIW) entering to our compartment, the rest of passengers insulting us and the ambulance and police cars out there. They checked our temperature and decided we needed a ride in the ambulance. My friend was sick but me, I couldn’t wait to see what will happen next! Three days in a Chinese hospital, somewhere between HK and Shanghai, medical tests and a call from my parents in the second day of being there, checking how our trip was going, and telling me about two Mexicans who were found with a contagious flu in Hong Kong and how Mexicans were quarantined to avoid to spread it. - No dad, first news I have, tell me more... Yes, here all ok, no worries... - Yargol bro, we have a strange flu and it seems we can die. After three days in quarantine, eating and drinking amazingly (this is how hospital meals taste after one month traveling with low budget), doctors let us go. We felt so grateful with the nurses that we bought flowers for them before leaving. True, we aren’t Mexican but Spanish, different country and continent, but I can’t blame them, we look similar and speak the same beautiful language. I know from my own experience that China takes viruses seriously. Hopefully this coronavirus will be just a bad memory soon. We were healthy, just tired after an exhausting trip. Eleven years later we still keep those videos at the ambulance, with the MIW... and a picture with a fantastic group of nurses in front of a wall that says “very contagious illness patients”. We never worried because we really ignored the problem and they took good care of us. In fact, after more than a decade of this story... I still live in China.