What is it like in China as Coronavirus rages on? There can be no two opinions that fears of Coronavirus experienced by the entire world compare nothing to those of China.
“It was horrifying, so extremely insecure!”
That is how Yara Ashraf, a student at Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Languages (al-Alsun), described life in China under Coronavirus. Yara was on fellowship at Tianjin University, studying Chinese, when the virus outbreak started in China. She was among a small group of Egyptian students who came home to Egypt from China. Watani talked to three of them: Yara Ashraf, Lu’ai Ahmad, and Marina Ibrahim.
Marina Ibrahim, a student in her final year at al-Alsun, said that she won a fellowship at Tianjin University in China, among 20 Egyptian students who had passed their Chinese language examinations.
“Tianjin University is close to Beijing,” Marina said. “We lived in the foreign students’ hostel on campus, and used to eat at restaurants or coffee shops there.
“We first heard about Coronavirus some time about 20 January which coincides with the Spring feast in China. After 28 January, most restaurants and shops in the area closed, and we were asked not to eat anywhere outside campus. That was when we started feeling matters were serious.
“We were given masks and thermometers, and a team of doctors would check us daily. “I decided to go back to Egypt, especially that my parents were worried about me.”
Marina was not the only Egyptian student to decide to go home if she could. Seven others too desired to do so, when all the preparations to leave were made, they started to move on.
“Fearing infection,” Marina said, “we avoided trains and public transport, and took a special car to Beijing airport. It was a sad scene to the airport, the shops were closed, no people were on the street, it felt like a ghost town. At the airport, we underwent checks; anyone who ran a fever was forbidden from leaving.”
Marina and her colleagues are still in contact with their friends who preferred not to leave China. “We’ve learned from our friends that matters are improving, and shops are again opening.
“I don’t know if I could resume my studies in China. I’d like to very much, but it might be difficult,” she said.
Marina believes there is much exaggeration on social media regarding the wildlife eaten by Chinese. “It’s not as widespread as is often said,” she insisted. “It’s more in the southern parts of China, especially among poorer populations.”
Yara, for her part, said the experience of living in fear taught her one thing: “Sometimes, there’s nothing we can do. That’s when we must leave everything in the hands of God.”
The young woman vividly remembered five days of terror. “I felt my throat was developing an inflammation and, realising it might be a Corona infection, I panicked. I couldn’t calm down till after the inflammation subsided a few days later.
“My colleagues and I used to protect ourselves with a great amount of disinfectants. We spent sleepless nights; I almost developed a phobia.”
Yara said she only regained her peace when she returned home to Egypt. “I thought I was in a dream! Seeing my parents and being in the comfort of my home made all the difference,” she smiled. “But I’d hate it if my fellowship is cut short; I do wish to go back to China and resume my studies once this nightmare is over.”
Lu’ai Ahmed, another student in his final year of Chinese-language study at al-Alsun, told Watani that back in China, they had become almost obsessed with following up on Chinese websites for the latest news on Coronavirus. “It was distressing,” he said. “Meanwhile, our university in Cairo advised us not to eat outside Tianjin campus. We felt the crisis.
“When our anxious families urged us to return home to Egypt before matters got worse, we decided to do just that.
“Taking all precautions, and wearing masks, we set on our journey home. Now that we’re here, we don’t know if we could go back to China to resume our studies. We already have have completed the first term there.”
Watani International
3 March 2020