For nearly two months now, I’ve been immobilized in my new lakeside neighborhood in Kunshan (see my previous post). In line with Shanghai’s much harsher lockdown, the Kunshan lockdown began in March, solidified in April, and started loosening up in May. For the past two weeks I’ve been able to leave my compound and drive all the way to the center of Kunshan City, where I was able to replenish some of my dwindling supplies. Also, after being nearly empty for the past month, the shelves of our local neighborhood shops once again have a full array of items, albeit limited in scope. And packages are being delivered to my doorstep once more. I had a number of packages on hold that I’d order on Taobao several weeks ago. Normally items take a few days at most to reach your doorstep here in China, but everything was put on hold for the entire month of April and well into May. Now the delivery trucks are once again speeding through our neighborhood with boxes of goods. It feels like the end of a long bout of constipation.
The past few weeks have been quite an ordeal for everyone. In addition to the isolation and immobilization, there’s also been the great uncertainty of how long this lockdown would continue and also what would happen if the virus continues to spread. The thought of being sent to a quarantine camp is not a pleasant one to say the least.
On the other hand, compared to my friends and family stuck in their apartments in Shanghai, my lockdown experience has been a mild one. Every day, I go on long walks in our neighborhood with my dog. We average close to 10K of walking per day. I know all the best routes and the best stopping points. Naturally, the lakeside walks are the best, and now that they are strewn with purple and yellow flowers, they are glorious walks indeed.
One place I visit daily is a small grass and flower-covered hillock overlooking the small lake in our community. It’s private property, but the house is unoccupied and the gates are wide open. In addition to me and my dog, others go there daily to fish, although technically this isn’t allowed and the police cart comes by now and then to scatter the fishermen.
I enjoy sitting on the hillock looking out over the lake in its various moods and watching the birds. There are several white egrets that contest for territory, preferring to strut along the buoy-boundary fences in the water as they hunt for fish. A family of little grebes floats and dives in the lake. I also see fishing boats now and then. Today an older couple were pulling up nets in various spots around the lake. There are also boats for hourly rent, including colorful kayaks and canoes. I may try them out later in the season.
After a few minutes at the lakeside, I wander back home, tracing a circular route that takes me through the neighborhoods of our community. Sometimes I stop to identify trees and flowers. The loquats are bursting now with yellow fruits. There are oleanders with purple and white flowers. There are St. Johnswort flowers, all yellow with bristling stamens. Today I spotted a sweetgum.
The most ubiquitous are the camphor trees, which line all the roads. They provide excellent shade. They are also very messy trees in springtime. In March, they drop their purple drupes all over the roads. Then they shed their leaves, which turn yellow, red, purple and finally brown, and immediately they grow new leaves. Then their tiny little yellow flowers grow and disperse all over the streets. Meanwhile, the local ladies hired to sweep the streets are kept busy all spring.
Since the lockdown lifted earlier in May, people have visibly relaxed. Many people don’t even wear masks outdoors anymore, and the local shopkeepers aren’t wearing them either. I guess everyone feels much safer now that numbers in Kunshan have dropped back to zero and people are being tested no longer on a daily basis but at least every two or three days. It seems that our community has now cut down the testing to once every three days, though they never seem to be able to state a clear policy around the testing. Instead, it’s “wait until we’re informed (by the government)”. Everybody’s in the dark in one way or other.
Despite the lifting of travel restrictions within Kunshan, I’m still choosing to lay low and stay in and around my neighborhood. I’ve been on two car trips to the city center to resupply; both times I’ve visited the German superstore called Metro. Both times I found plenty of stuff, yet I was disappointed by their lack of imported items including coffee beans, Italian pasta, and tonic water. Still, I was able to restock my liquor cabinets, fill the fridge with beer, and stuff the freezer with cuts of chicken and beef.
The biggest change for me has been my ability to make bread. Until the lockdown began, I’d never baked a loaf in my life. But after all the bread disappeared off the shelves, the need arose. Fortunately, the local shop still carried plenty of yeast and flour. I started watching how-to videos on Youtube. I recommend watching a few of them to get different tips and learn different techniques. Now I bake a loaf of bread every week. I also make homemade pizzas and banana bread. The bread I make now is fresher and tastier than any of the store-bought bread you can buy in China, except perhaps the specialized breads in shops like Baker & Spice in Shanghai.
A couple weeks ago, while I was walking back home from the local shops, I was approached by a Frenchman who also lives in our community. He invited me to join him and an Englishman and their wives for dinner. We exchanged Wechats. Later, we all met for a long lunch. I also invited another foreigner who I’d seen a few times on the road, who was always friendly and said hello even at the height of the lockdown when we were all masking. It was drizzling that afternoon, and we found a covered pavilion to sit while we enjoyed a potluck lunch together with some wine, beer, and whiskey.
A few days later, I invited the group to join me for a BBQ dinner at my home. This was the first time I had a chance to use my new backyard grill. Fortunately, one member of the party turns out to be a veteran grill-master and showed me the ropes. We had a nice evening eating beef and chicken kebabs and home-made bread while chatting on my back porch. At one point I brought out my guitar. I hadn’t played songs for other people since the lockdown began, and since I’d been working on a whole new set-list of songs, I tried some of them out on the group. They seemed to appreciate the live show.
This is one thing I miss from the “normal days” of Shanghai prior to the lockdown, when we had a band going and were jamming and gigging all around town in local clubs and bars. Maybe we will be able to revive that scene. But since the lockdown in Shanghai is still ongoing and nobody knows for sure when and how things will return to normal again, everything is up in the air.
As the lockdowns in China progress, many foreigners have indicated their desire to leave the country, temporarily if not permanently. Some have already left for their home countries or for greener pastures. One of my old friends from Beijing moved down to Thailand recently, citing difficulties returning to China as the main reason. Some people predict another mass exodus of foreigners from China. Since 2020, the number of foreigners in China has already halved, and it may halve again according to some predictions.
I have no plans to leave the country any time soon. It’s still too expensive to fly back and forth to China, the process of returning here is complicated, and the quarantine time is very long. I would love to spend part of the summer back in the States visiting family and friends, regardless of the current situation, but I don’t think I can afford to do so right now. I’m hoping that traveling will ease up over the next year or so.
As for the overall impact of the lockdown on Shanghai, this remains to be seen. I am confident that the city will be able to spring back into a glorious existence. Yet this may take some time and a great deal of healing. We shall see. The next few weeks and months will be interesting indeed.
