Posted on 01/23/2020 6:45:36 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
BEIJING -- Chinese authorities Thursday moved to lock down three cities that are home to more than 18 million people in an unprecedented effort to contain the deadly new virus that has sickened hundreds and spread to other parts of the world during the busy Lunar New Year travel period.
Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances at 10 a.m. Only travelers holding tickets for the last trains out were allowed to enter. Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million people were eerily quiet.
In addition to shutting down the train station, authorities closed the airport and halted ferry, subway and bus service.
Authorities announced similar measures would take effect Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou. In Huanggang, theaters, internet cafes and other entertainment centers were also ordered closed.
In the capital, Beijing, authorities canceled “major events” indefinitely, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of holiday celebrations, in order to “execute epidemic prevention and control.”
“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science,” Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization’s representative in China, said in an interview. “It has not been tried before as a public health measure. We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work.”
The illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus first appeared last month in Wuhan, an industrial and transportation hub in central China’s Hubei province. The vast majority of mainland China’s more than 570 cases have been in the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Thank you !
I admit and stand corrected about Wuhan population density.
Correction appreciated !
[Thank you !
I admit and stand corrected about Wuhan population density.
Correction appreciated ! ]
It actually stands to reason - China is a lot more agrarian than the US is, which would imply that the population is far more spread out, on average. Country-wide, China has a higher population density. But a big chunk of China’s population still resides in the sticks, so most areas aren’t particularly densely populated by American urban standards.
There’s also the fact that, historically-speaking, just about every square foot of Chinese land has been populated and cultivated intensively, whereas American settlers were moving to a mostly empty land. So simple tradition stands in the way of American-style city population densities - for residents of a given area, their ancestral graveyards are rooted in areas their lineal forebears have populated for possibly thousands of years. The importance of ancestral worship in the Chinese tradition may have acted as a counterbalance to the centripetal pull of the 10m and up regional agglomerations that the Chinese call “cities”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestor_veneration_in_China
“They aren’t clean people. I work around lots of them and they are disgusting.”
that was NOT my experience at all when working in the PRC: i was astonished at how clean the people and their clothing were, much cleaner and fresher than when i was in France ...
As I understand it, Mao's conquest involved physical destruction
of many Chinese written genealogical records.
The destruction was needed to move much of the agrarian population to the cities
and off their ancestral lands.
Is this true, ..or was I misinformed ?
“They aren’t clean people. I work around lots of them and they are disgusting.”
About like this?
Our local Chinese restaurant was shut down for 3 months when a person saw staff scraping leftover food from people plates back into the food bins on the buffet.
[As I understand it, Mao’s conquest involved physical destruction
of many Chinese written genealogical records.
The destruction was needed to move much of the agrarian population to the cities
and off their ancestral lands.
Is this true, ..or was I misinformed ?]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Jianying
There’s also a tenuous link between pandemics and Grand Solar Minimums.
[About like this?
Our local Chinese restaurant was shut down for 3 months when a person saw staff scraping leftover food from people plates back into the food bins on the buffet.]
What I’d like to find out about is the disgusting personal habits that anyone may have observed. Do they reflexively lick their palms and shake your hand every time you see them? Do they hawk up loogies on the carpet?
Yes. Interesting times ahead. Best.
Here in Bangkok Thailand the air pollution is that bad that school has been cancelled the last two days. Masks in public are the norm, not the exception.
The streets and public transportation are packed with people. Disease could spread like a wildfire in dried scrub pine.
[The streets and public transportation are packed with people. Disease could spread like a wildfire in dried scrub pine.]
I’m headed to Chang Mai in Norghrrn Thailand next Monday.
Then crossing into Laos and boating down the Mekong River.
The next week I’ll be in Hanoi.
Guess I’m playing Russian roulette.
[I’m headed to Chang Mai in Norghrrn Thailand next Monday.
Then crossing into Laos and boating down the Mekong River.
The next week I’ll be in Hanoi.
Guess I’m playing Russian roulette.]
bfl
Yeah, or like the guy who came out of his take out restaurant and dragged the doe I just ran over into it....
Since you’re not hanging out in airports, you’re probably better off.
This is what you call ‘retired’?
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