Sunday I took a long

Date: 2003.04.28 | Category: Uncategorized | Tags:

Sunday I took a long run downtown as part of my marathon training, although I really wonder if they’re going to be able to have that race. I noticed that all the drugstores we went by had some kind of barrier in front to keep customers out, with staff taking their orders from outside the store. Probably a great way to keep SARS from spreading, given that sick people certainly will head to the drugstore. When we went biking in the afternoon, I noticed that this was no longer the case. A Chinese friend I asked about this guessed that the city may have ordered them to open. Many, many restaurants and businesses are closed, which gives the city a very bleak appearance. Beijing Normal now has security guards positioned so that they can stop people when they leave campus, which is a disturbing thought, although I’m not sure who they’re stopping. I’ve only been asked to show my ID once, but they are stopping all the students and anyone else trying to get into campus.  

Monday, after my wife’s classes were done, we biked downtown so that she could get some clothes and gifts. Again, many stores are closed. It’s difficult to find photographs that really show the change, because even when it’s “empty” many parts of Beijing are no less crowded than a typical American town. Here’s a picture of a bus on a main road around noon on Monday, which would otherwise be packed.

NOTE: If the pictures don’t show up, it’s because of problems communicating with the Radio server—please check back later…

Here’s a picture of one very busy place, the old Beijing train station

And here’s a picture of the “Silk Market”, looking south from the alley by the embassies (the banner just says that smoking is strictly forbidden):

The Silk Market in particular had a glum, lackadaisical mood about it, although once I got involved with bargaining for the things my wife wanted, it was kind of nice to get back into the rhythm of arguing in a foreign language. Everyone’s face was preserved, we got reasonable but not unreasonable bargains, and my wife didn’t have to leave me because I’m so hard-hearted, as one of the shopkeepers suggested before we reached an agreement and became friends again.

Downtown along the main road toward the Silk Market (Jianguomen) there were police standing every few hundred yards blocking off one of the lanes, presumably for leaders or foreign visitors’ travel. That used to happen fairly often near Beijing Normal before they built the freeway to the airport, but I didn’t realize it was still going on. It certainly uses a lot of manpower. We also had three ambulances pass us with sirens on during the course of our trip. I was struck by the number of people each carried, all bundled up in their protective outfits. It looked to be about 6 or 7 people per ambulance, which seems a lot to be exposing to potential danger.

When I got home I found out that the Great Wall Marathon is indeed not going to be held in May. I’m not at all surprised, since I doubt that people in that area would welcome a big influx of runners from or coming through Beijing. Particularly after I read an article in the Washington Post about how people in the suburbs are putting barricades on roads to keep Beijingers away. It’s too bad—I’d gotten to be in pretty good shape, and with the disease scare I might have been able to win my age group, if no one else showed up. They’re planning to hold it on November 1, by which point the disease and attendant panic may be just a sad memory.