Job Discussion Forums

gerard · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 581 Location: Internet Cafe

Hello---I recently bought a ticket to Beijing for May day(20 hours away) but am starting to wonder. Sars might be spread in the cramped air on planes. A train shouldn't be as bad but the last time I was on one the staff came around locking up the windows even though it was bloody lovely outside. I do have a "sleeper" so that should give privacy and I wont have people hovering over me coughing... Still though it's a long trip and touristy spots may be crowded.... Normally I would't worry about this any more than the train crashing but it does seem at a critical stage..Vaccines wont be ready for a month or two- if then... Just thinking out loud here nobody really knows the danger level...Are you letting this change your plans?????

Freaky Deaky · Joined: 13 Feb 2003 Posts: 309 Location: In Jen's kitchen

Yeah, I'm thinking of going to Guangzhou or Hong Kong. I've heard that it's nice there this time of year.

gerard · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 581 Location: Internet Cafe

OH well-never mind. Get back from dinner and see the holidays are cancelled. Looks like my only traveling next week will be to the liquor and VCD stores.

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

I've been planning to do the Yangzi River/Three Gorges cruise before the dam comes online next month and things there really start to change.

With some trepidation I am still planning to do so if it's possible. My school's a little different then the usual private language acadamy or public school, and we'll likely be out anyway...a lot of my students are booked into an IELTS class the week after the holiday. It's a nice long holiday and a rare opportunity to travel, and I hate to think I might lose it to an aggressive blob of amino acids.

One thing about it...if the national vacation gets canceled then crowds won't be a problem...

I'm not sure the trains will be better than airplanes. They aren't quite as sealed but the trips can be much, much longer and sanitation can be much, much worse. Either one might be a good time to consider a mask.

Sleeper? Privacy??? Gerard, which country are YOU living in? Wink

TEECHER · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 47

As far as traveling on the long weekend, I too saw it as an opportunity to travel under less crowded circumstances. Since then I have heard that the university students are being told not to travel home, and events are being cancelled. can anyone tell me whether at this point, the students have been "requested" not to travel, or "ordered" not to travel? It suddenly struck me that this government which has been in denial over the last months is about to do a full shift in policy to the other end of the spectrum. I think we may see long-distance trains and buses cancelled due to government order. By the way, the Yangtze river cruise is awesome. I hope you can find a way to see it in the future.

MartinK · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 344

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

It is official now - no one-week holiday season this year! Who regrets this? Not me - if I do get my one week off then I have at least one bunk bed in a train carriage to myself without booking three days in advance. If not, I will stay put. Usually, trains are booked out a week before the holidays, and ticket prices go up 30% (which is still better than the old 100%).

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

Personally, I hate taking a vacation during vacation. I went to Badaling (great wall outside of Beijing) two weeks ago...You could bare walk it was so crowdwd. May holiday...forget it. I would feel a lot better going by plane. They are spraying all the trains with heavy doses of I don't want to know what. I am more scared of that then sitting on a train with an old man standing behind me, coughing on me.

taiwan boy · Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 99 Location: China

China originally announced that it was cancelling the May Day holiday because of SARS. According to this article from the Straits Times there will still be a holiday from 1-5 May. My guess is that there are some intense battles going on in the upper levels of the CCP right now regarding how to respond to the SARS outbreak. And if the virus hasn't already spread to every province in China, by the time the holidays are over it will have!!!

hubei_canuk · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Posts: 240 Location: hubei china

Hamish · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 333 Location: PRC

TEECHER · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Posts: 47

Hamish, "the least justified combination of words"? I dont really see this being a true or relevant assessment of the point the writer is trying to make. I do however, think your attitude may well be unjustified. Ignorance and a bar of soap are in some historically proven cases, not bliss....they can be certain death. Many people are dying and more will die in the upcoming weeks, months and years due to S.A.R.S. and its mutations. My Chinese friends are quite concerned, even if they may not grasp the full implications. I gather you grasp....... what fiction?

senor boogie woogie · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2003 8:13 am Post subject:

A famous American communist once stated in 1932, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." I would have no trouble traveling over the holiday if there is to be one.

In Hangzhou, I ride two city busses almost everyday. I (and all of us a teachers) come into close contact with students everyday. China has one of the highest population densities in the world. Really, the only way to avoid SARS altogether is to stay in your house 24/7 (and make no money), and avoid restaurants, beer joints, night markets, and other mayhem (thus, have no fun) this society offers me.

Disease is a crapshoot. The only way not to get sick is to stay inside and no do anything or travel anywhere. Senor refuses this medicine.

I do suffer from SAFS. This stands for Sudden Acute Flactulence syndrome.

SENOR

Hamish · Joined: 20 Mar 2003 Posts: 333 Location: PRC

Try to follow along here.

>Death trains to Treblinka might be safer< is the "combination to which I referred.

A ride on a "death train to Treblinka" was a one way, certain, fatal journey. Reference to it in the context of the current SARS problem in China is, in my opinion, silly at best, and dramatically insensitive at worst.

Elsewhere in this forum I have quoted current WHO data that indicates that the crisis has indeed passed and that much of what we are hearing is media drama. Of course it may be true that we are facing Armageddon. If so, there is no current scientific evidence I can see that this is true. The fact that you, and your Chinese friends, are "quite concerned" does not a world catastrophe make.

I wish us all good health, every one, and agree with one of my favorite President's message that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Have a good day.

Regards,

hubei_canuk · Joined: 20 Apr 2003 Posts: 240 Location: hubei china