Beijing Bunker: "I Miss My Friends so Much, Even as Much as Hotpot"

As Beijing continues to self-quarantine, the stories of how people have been dealing with the coronavirus outbreak – by staying, leaving, or watching on from afar – are many and varied. In Beijing Bunker, we quiz Beijingers on what approach they've been taking to stay safe and sane through the ordeal.

If you believed everything you saw on social media, you'd probably think that everyone is on the verge of losing their sanity. But local resident Dong Shizao has mastered the fine zen-like skill of being cautious and chill at the same time. Well, it doesn't hurt that she's got a cute little kitten and a caring husband around the house to make it easier. 

Can you first tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
My name is Shizao and I’m Chinese, although I wasn’t born in Beijing, I settled down in the city since 2015 after I finished my studies and came back from the UK. My husband and I got married last year and now he is working as a product manager in Alibaba Group. Until recently, I worked in Boao Forum which is an international organization. We both love to travel very much and he is an amateur photographer, so in the near future, we kind of plan to become a full-time travel vloggers together and just travel around the world, record every moment with our cameras. I don’t know, maybe it’s a bold decision for some but it’s a lifestyle that we really want to give it a shot while we are still young.

Would you consider yourself safe, sane, safe and sane, or other? Why?
Safe? Sane? Yeah, I guess. I’m physically healthy and pretty satisfied with my current situation, although we have spent most of our time at home because of the virus, we know it’s necessary and temporary.

Has the virus disrupted your travel plans or those of your loved ones? How has your life in general changed on account of the situation?
Fortunately, we don’t have any travel plans until the end of March, to Japan. We don’t know if this virus situation will get any better, but hopefully, it will pass away as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we will just stay at home, learn to cook, improve our video editing skills, read books that we haven’t had time to read before, etc. I’ll say it’s pretty comfortable and gives us more time to prepare our future plans.

How have you been spending your time since the outbreak – are there any projects or hobbies you’ve been able to catch up on?
Cooking skills are so important since we don’t go out anymore and stopped ordering takeaway. We are cooking two meals a day, and after lunch, I do yoga for one hour and read my books or watch some vlog tutorial videos online. My husband sits in front of his computer screen for like 8-9 hours during the day for work. In the evening, we might watch films or play games on Switch until we go to bed. It might sound pretty boring but it’s totally fine with us.

Has the situation affected your work or business? If so, how?
As I’m unemployed, it hasn't affected me that much. As for my husband, I think he has spent a lot more time on his job than before, probably because of the communication cost; he often needs to discuss an issue with someone on the phone and that takes a lot more time than it did before.

Have there been any unexpected upsides?
Of course it does for a loving married couple, haha. We have more time to be together than ever, and talk about stuff that we never had time to think about before. Plus our cat is in its happiest mood ever because he gets to hang around with us 24 hours a day.

Which resources (online or real-life) have proved the most useful to you during this time? 
WeChat Moments. I get pretty much all of the information and news I need from there, it’s so powerful and makes me feel that I’m still connected to the world.

My husband said he finds UC Browser very useful because all the numbers and news related to this virus are frequently updated there but I think a bigger reason is that he is working in the UC Browser department, so he has to use it every day whether he wants to or not!

What's one thing that you've done that has saved you a lot of hassle/time/insanity?
Putting on my pajamas! Even during my yoga time. I wear my pajamas all day long and don’t have to get changed when I’m doing different kinds of stuff – it just feels great.

What do you most look forward to doing once all of this has blown over?
I want to go to a Sichuan hotpot restaurant with my friends, I miss them so much, even as much as hotpot. I mean it!

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Images courtesy of Dong Shizao