January 3, 2023
Day R15: New Year Victory Lap
There is no denying it, 2022 was awful. After 3 years of this hysteria, it dawned on me that for this beautiful new start in 2023 we could put an end to this pandemic for good and start getting back to normal. Despite all the hoopla from politicians, now in other countries, getting worried about the covid outbreaks in China, my anxiety levels were very low about this. After all, I had lived through the nightmare with the zero covid policy and was chomping at the bit to do international travel again. With the opening up and lifting of the quarantines back into China (effective Jan 8) my trip plans for 2023 were going ahead full steam.
The decision to weather the storm and not quit China, at least for now, had paid off quite literally. I could look forward again to the usual 3+ months of holidays per year and get back to doing some epic international cycle tours. Despite what all these politicans were saying about travel restrictions from China, I didn't really care. This wouldn't last long anyway. It was time to celebrate and it would start with a series of victory laps.
That said, with the possibility of international travel back on and NO MORE LOCKDOWNS, I wanted to ease into this gradually and savor the moment.
The first victory lap happened to stay within Shanghai province even though there no rules anymore about where I go.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I wasn't sure exactly where to start but figured that Korea Town would be a good place to check out. With perfect weather and sunshine I set out and stopped along the way to enjoy some coffee and sandwiches.
More and more people were on the streets and it could be explained in part from the previous analysis, that most of the covid cases had already peaked in the short time since China opened up. The latest estimates were that 70% of people in the cities had already gotten covid and were recovering. I was one of the earliest ones to catch it, and at this point more and more people were getting back to work.
You can't put the genie back in the bottle, so the zero covid policy goes into the trash bin of history. Instead, what will happen is that covid cases are going to drop to very low levels anyways and those people who never got covid might actually stay negative. On the other hand, such people (around 30% of the city) chose to live like hermits and make their own self-imposed lockdown
This would be quite a residual effect that would go on for years. But it's their own business. It they want to go around wearing masks in public for the rest of their lives, go ahead but they have no business telling me to wear one as I won't. It is a sad situation to see and the end of zero covid didn't make much of a difference for them. These people basically stay inside the whole time and work from home, they get food delivered, and spend hours sanitizing and cleaning every last surface. What a shitty way to live, but that is the choice they made.
The biking then took a turn towards one of the city airports on the west side and there were some interesting tunnels built for bikes (and of course e-scooters) that went underneath the main tarmac.
At one point, a China Eastern flight was on the runway parallel to the road I was cycling on. The roar of the engines sounded as it was cleared for takeoff and then shot off into the sky where I could see it. This was just beautiful, combined with the perfect sunny weather, as a surefire sign that I would be on such a plane and off to the next cycling adventures not too long from now.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 5 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |