After eighty-five days in quarantine, an American expat shows what his adopted city of Shenzhen, China, looks like as it reopens.
[high pitched chiming][water lapping]- My name is Chris.I'm originally from California.I moved to Shenzhen, China in 2012.I met my wife here and she is from China.♪ Burning like a silver flame ♪We have two kids, ouroldest one is turning four.And our youngest one isabout one and a half.And we also live heretraditionally, with her mom.[speaking foreign language]We've been in this kindof outbreak situationaffecting our home since January 24th.[indistinct announcer speaking]And now I'm in my fourthweek back in the office.[scanner pinging]Now, with things relaxed,I'll get my temperaturetaken five to 10 times a day.In the elevator we havegreen squares on the floorthat you have to stand on.Even when I go from floorto floor of the office,I'll get my temperature taken.On the subway too.Keep our masks on wheneveryou go to a public space.When you're passing by people,they don't know that you're smiling.So sometimes I'll just say, "I'm smiling!"Just to make sure that they understandthat I'm having a good dayand I hope they are too.[tense music]When things were happening here,I was thinking, oh man, thisis where everything started.There was no head start here.And there's so many people here.And we still don't knowhow bad it's gonna get.Meanwhile, in America, things are great,people are posting Instagramabout being outside.My sister's pregnant.My brother is managing this bar in LA.They're all kind of living life normally.And I really just had thisthought in my head of,we're in the middle of this.Definitely we're notgonna be going to workin person for a while.The country is effectively shut down.Flights out of the countryare still occurring,but are becoming more and more limited.I was thinking about flyingeveryone back to the US.[yelling][laughing]One night, I just threw it out there.Of course my wife would be asking why?- Hey.- And we kept goingback and forth about the meritsof staying versus leaving.There'd be the risk of,what if someone on the plane had it,and we would all get it?I have asthma, my daughterhas a bit of asthma.[baby talking]And my mother in lawis immunocompromised.- Don't fall over, let me go.- For someone who's a natural worrier,that just feeds on all of your fears.But really it came downto, I did not trustthe Chinese government, asmuch as the American governmentin terms of taking care of the situation.I said that, and she tookthat to offense, of course,as a Chinese person.[yelling]The biggest question was my mother in law.Because the US closesborders to any foreignerswho had been in China in the last 14 days.Really on paper, shewouldn't be able to get in.So without that certainty,we just decided to stay.Maybe a few weeks into the lockdown here,when things started ramping up in the USin terms of reported cases,and the measures that different statesand local governments weretaking, I was thinking,maybe my wife was right.Which spouses hate to say.
[laughing]Lily, teach her ABC again.This is like a once in ageneration type of situation.That no one could really prepare for.How do you set up all ofthe security measures,and health measures, and service measuresto make sure that everyone's safe?[siren blaring]We have like 12 millionpeople in Shenzhen panicking.And here, it just happenedridiculously fast.[intense music]In my apartment building,they set up a temperaturestation almost overnight.The security guards take itreally, really seriously.Even when I would take out the trash,I would walk 30 feet to the trash bins.In plain sight they would seeme, and I would come back.And even then they would stilltake my temperature againon the return.If you do test high on your temperature,you get taken to a fever clinic.And then they had a specifichospital in Shenzhenfor all positive cases.During that time, about 99% of the daywas spent in the apartment.Carried on that way for about two months.[light music]My older daughter had been insidefor about 85 days beforethe first time out.It was great.Careful.
[laughing]It almost seemed like she'd seen the worldfor the first time again.[children talking and laughing]And our youngest one, sheis one year and five months.About 18% of her life was spentwithout leaving the front door.She just wanted to stay out thereand be out there as long as possible.So she had a really good time.And now every day she asks to go outside.
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