Happy New Year, Hohhot!

Bai Jinna

Hohhot (China)

I. Endless Gap Year

I am a student receiving her education in Beijing, whose policy was too strict for people to re-enter after summer vacation. My hometown, Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, has been under a wave of covid-19 for two months. So my mother decided to send me to Inner Mongolia - another region ruled by ethnic minority groups - to get my codes "clear" so I could enter the Chinese capital.

Arrival in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia, on a flight from Urumqi. Author of all the photos in this text: Bai Jinna.

Life always plays with you if you try to control everything. He never gets bored of telling people that his life is full of chaos and disorder. When I got to Hohhot, they reluctantly sent me to the quarantine hotel for…I didn't know how many days I would have to stay there at that time. Since my plan was to stay at the hotel I had reserved, the first step of the trip left me with a great deal of trepidation and confusion.
I had no choice but to accept.
They told me that I had to stay there for three days, and they badly ripped me off by charging me an unreasonable amount for a “room and board fee”. The room was covered in dust, and when the wind blew, I could hear the roof shaking.

The view from the room window of Bai Jinna's first quarantine hotel in Hohhot.

All traumatic memories can appear as interesting experiences after many days and after a good rest. I no longer want to complain about the state of the quarantine room, because he taught me the lesson that there are many people who live a life that was unimaginable to me. I only stayed here for three days, but a lot of people can only afford this type of motel when they travel.
Here I began my endless “sabbatical year”, maybe not a year, but at least a semester.

II. hohhot closed

I clearly remembered the day I left the quarantine hotel.
It was my last day as a normal person.
The day was sunny and hot, I was relaxed and thinking about my next trip. I thought maybe I could wait a week to go to Beijing and continue my carefree college life.
When I got to the hotel I had booked, I freshened up with a nice long shower and a meal from McDonald's.
Then I got the news: a new wave of covid-19 had just appeared in Hohhot.
I was like a citizen in Pompeii and I could only watch as my city and my plan were covered in hot lava. I could not do anything. Since October 4, I began my seclusion.
The food was becoming more and more simplified.
The hotel canceled room service and every day we were only served a few dishes, no appetizers of course.
I had only brought two T-shirts and a jumper, and I have been wearing these clothes for almost three months.
Night after night, I chewed my own hunger, standing in front of the window, watching the lonely street. There was no one, except for some dim streetlights.

Sometimes I heard the siren of the ambulance. First I would panic, but now I would fall asleep at this kind of disturbing sound.
When you see the empty landscape of the city, it is an irresistible idea to believe that human civilization exists only in your imagination. The pale views of construction sites by the window…
I tried to follow the numbers of new confirmed cases reported by the government, they went down a bit at the end of October and with the promise of the local government that they will “cleanse the city of the virus by the beginning of November”, I still hold on to my optimism. .

But as the saying goes, “there are no atheists in the trenches”, nor are there optimists in cities contaminated by covid-19. Once you have hope, you lose it completely.
On November 1 there are no miracles.

III. Happy New Year, Hohhot!

Good things happen, but they don't come suddenly or everywhere. It's more like the arrival of spring. You see the cracks on the ice sheet on the river and you should know it's coming.
When I first felt that the wave of covid-19 in Hohhot might be coming to an end, it was with the opening of Seven-eleven stores. I could buy instant noodles and other small snacks with my phone. It was such prosperous news that I bought a lot and ate like there was no tomorrow.
This was the first crack.
According to the press conference on Hohhot's epidemic prevention and control work on November 8, Hohhot's low-risk areas and epidemic-free communities were now completely out of quarantine, as required.
The second crack was the sound of fireworks.

Fireworks to celebrate the end of the Hohhot quarantine seen from the window of Bai Jinna's second confinement hotel room.

When I first heard it, I thought there had been an explosion somewhere, but there was no news.
The second night, I kept hearing the sound of firecrackers. Looking out, I saw large red flowers bursting into the silent night sky.
My mother sent me a video made by a blogger with the following caption: “Hohhot people celebrate New Year without the country knowing”.
The real reason was that people are celebrating the end of the quarantine in some low-risk communities, and they didn't know how to express this kind of feelings, but it could be compared to the joy of the New Years party.
Now I'm leaving in two days to my next unknown destination.
Don't forget to make a wish, after all it's “new year”.
I sincerely hope this type of new year never occurs in Hohhot again. And I wish the city all the best.

bai jinna He studies Journalism at Renmin University in Beijing. In this story, he describes the experience he lived when he was looking for a covid-free place in the country so he could travel to the capital to resume his studies. Since last week the anti-covid measures have begun to be relaxed, but Bai has not yet been able to return to Beijing due to the increase in cases in the city.

 

Bai Jinna

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