The occasional bicycle bell cuts into the drowsy afternoon as Qiu Wei contemplates his next chess move. His opponent, Lin Qingjiang, sits across from him under the same leafy tree, enjoying the breeze from a nearby lake.
The friends have been playing regularly since SARS subsided and President Hu Jintao (
"It's almost like SARS never happened," said Qiu, a 20-year-old bar worker.
Beijing's sidewalks are brimming with shoppers and tourists, vendors and musicians and barbers -- none wearing the surgical masks that covered faces everywhere at the height of the outbreak. Shuttered cinemas and karaoke bars have reopened to long lines. Banners encouraging the public fight against SARS are gone.
But international health experts say no one should be declaring total victory. "We have been successful in breaking the transmission of the virus between humans. But it doesn't mean that SARS is over yet," said Dr. Henk Bekedam, the WHO's China representative.
Last week, to great fanfare, China's last two SARS patients were released from Ditan Hospital in Beijing, where half of the mainland's 5,300 infections and 349 deaths occurred.
"We have worked together. We have overcome fear," said Liu Jianying, Ditan Hospital's director. "Now we can conclude we have protected the people's health."
Hu's announcement on July 28 appeared to be the final reassurance many needed that life -- for now -- is back to normal. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, Beijing's flagship sites, are once again full of camera-toting throngs. The capital's notorious traffic snarls are back, vexing millions.
Many buy the authorities' message: That a stout-hearted response by the Chinese people and their leaders got the job done.
"The government has controlled SARS well," Qiu concluded. "It shouldn't come back."
China was the worst-hit by SARS, which surfaced in November from the southern province of Guangdong. The Chinese government responded slowly at first, then launched a campaign to persuade its citizens and the world that it was taking the problem seriously.
More than 900 people died of SARS around the world before it ebbed in June. That was also when the WHO lifted a travel advisory to Beijing, the last place in the world to be removed from a list of cities where nonessential visits were discouraged.
Beijing's SARS Prevention and Treatment Office, which coordinated the city's disease-fighting efforts at the height of the epidemic, was shut down after Hu's speech.
"We did it because SARS is over," said Zhao Jingqing, a city government spokeswoman.
Not so fast, medical investigators caution. As the public's confidence returns, they are apprehensive because so much about SARS remains unknown -- its origins, what role animals played in its transmission and, most important, how likely it is to return.
Investigators believe SARS jumped from wildlife to humans in Guangdong, where consuming exotic creatures is traditionally considered a delicacy. A team of Chinese officials and UN and WHO investigators this month interviewed wildlife traders in Guangdong, trying to track where in the animal population the virus originated.
Chinese and international health officials emphasize that vigilance is needed.
"We're in a SARS era now," said Alan Schnur, a Beijing-based representative WHO representative.
In Beijing, that vigilance appears in small but telling ways.
Taxis, buses and other public areas are still being disinfected, although less frequently. Spitting is much rarer than it used to be. At the GL Cafe, a Hong Kong-style restaurant in Beijing, a dispenser filled with hand-sanitizing alcohol rub has been installed at the front door next to a sign: "Keeping clean is the responsibility of you and me."
"The sanitizer is very popular," said a cashier who would give only her family name, Li. "It's hard to tell if SARS will come back. But if it does, what's the use of being scared?"
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in