It’s a cold winter’s day in China and as we enter the year of the Rat a plague has arrived and the timing for this event could not have been better.  Most Chinese will travel home at this time of the year and if they don’t go home then they will now spread their wings across the globe. Many have already set off before many of the travel bans were implemented.

There is fear in the community, many social gatherings have been cancelled, even family dinners have been postponed.  Most of the festivities or anything really where there was going to be a gathering of folk is no more. Mind you I went out yesterday to the shops and they were quite busy with last minute shoppers.

Today I will not go out I think, I’ll stay home and it’s not because of the virus, it’s more to do with the pollution levels which are also causing problems to folk like me and of course it is teeming with rain and it just feels bone shatteringly cold.

I’ve seen a few people as I look out of the window this morn, but the community that I live in is very still which I do like.  There is always an upside to any situation like this and when you live in a country with such a large population it can sometimes be a struggle to find peace and quiet, but the last few mornings when I have gone to the park it has been wonderful, there are only a handful of hardcore walkers out and about and there are very few workers passing through.

Maybe the reaction to this virus has been a little over the top but when you have a population as large as China it is better for them to react this way than to just dismiss it like other places may do. The social structure here allows the government to lock down areas with ease and there is just no argument, I can’t imagine some of these decisions having the same acceptance in many western countries.