Quarantined in China: My (Lack of) Social Life in Beijing

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As a teen, traveling to China was something I was always excited about, and the thought of being able to see an entirely new part of the world, meeting new people, and being introduced to a new culture was all on my mind during the months before my trip. However, I found myself more and more doubtful of my positive outlook with each passing day. Of course, traveling to a new country is always a thrilling experience, but the idea of leaving behind who I was for the last 15 years seemed a bit extreme whenever I thought about it. Having already spent an entire year separated from my mother due to work bringing her to Beijing, I relied heavily on support from my friends, and moving there to stay for an extended period was a change that I’m not sure I was ready for.

Most of 2019 was uninteresting as far as I was concerned. I spent a large part on the trip I had planned for August. Well, soon enough the time to travel came, and it was definitely a unique experience. Being someone who has never traveled by plane before, getting on an airplane for the first time in my life was both stressful and exciting.

The first 40 or so minute flight that we took from our hometown of Skopje, Macedonia passed relatively quickly. However, after changing flights in Istanbul, all of us quickly realized how long and boring the trip from Turkey to China would be. After a grand total of 14 hours, our entire family had finally arrived in Beijing. Almost the entirety of our first day here was spent moving through the entire airport completing different documents, and the only thing that I can recall is the long Didi trip that we took from the airport to our apartment in Daxing.

Exploring Beijing’s iconic landmarks

Looking back, not a single day has passed without me thinking about my home in Skopje, whether that would be my old house, neighborhood, or friends. The difference between now and then is that there were still many things I wanted to see and do in China, and was very hopeful that I would be able to tell all the people at home about my trip here in the summer of 2020. Most of the first months here were filled with different and unique experiences. Me, my parents, and my little sister traveled throughout Beijing and visited many different landmarks around the city, learning more about Chinese history, culture, and way of life in the process. Going to multicultural restaurants, historical monuments, and different city centers, we went to many places during our first months here, and all was going well until a sudden, and much unexpected, turn of events occurred.

Visiting Beijing's iconic landmarks before

the pandemic started.

The arrival of Covid-19 was unforeseen. Unlike people back home, I was able to experience this global crisis in a more unique way. Since China was essentially ground zero of the pandemic, my family and I were the first of our folks to experience quarantines, wearing face masks and the like… People were forced to quit their jobs, others fell victim to the disease, while for some life barely changed.

At the start of February, quarantine in our school campus in the Daxing District was introduced. All of us were ordered to stay inside our apartments, and other parts of the campus were sealed off, preventing us from leaving and even exploring what was inside the campus itself. This left us with few options regarding what to do.

My parents and I loved traveling and visiting different locations, however, we quickly realized that this was no longer possible. For a long time, our entire family spent the nights watching different movies, and I was introduced to the vast world of Hollywood, learning about different actors, directors, screenwriters, and more which provided a source of entertainment throughout the entire lockdown for our entire family, and we frequently discussed the movies we watched together.

Around the same time period, I noticed that I had worsened my performance in many areas: namely, my love for reading, exercising, and learning new things in school. My life began to deteriorate as I spent more and more time communicating with my friends via the internet. There was always a feeling of homesickness throughout my entire stay here in China, however, it was never as noticeable as during this time. Whenever I spoke with my friends, I always felt as if I was back home. While interaction with other people is always good, spending too much time to the point that it damages my daily routine was something that I did not notice was harmful to my overall health until at a later time.

Through all of this, I noticed drastic changes in my behavior. Conversations with others became more aggressive, I was quick to get angry and mainly wanted to keep to myself. Before the Covid-19 induced lockdown started, I actually maintained some sort of contact with most of the students studying and living here on the school campus, however all of that quickly diminished when we were ordered to not leave our homes. My entire social life was almost ruined due to this entire situation, and now looking back, I believe that caused my change in behavior. I really did not enjoy anything other than speaking with my friends, which is what I did all day every day.

After spending a few days in Nanjing, as a sort of vacation as a reward for finishing school, I began to think about where my life was going, and reflect on the time I had spent in China. I was able to realize all the things that I was missing out on here by choosing to stay homesick and do nothing other than think about my home. It was after returning from Nanjing that I began focusing on making myself happier and improving my life in the process. I exercised more frequently, finished the book that I was reading at the time, started off well with my second year of high school, and started feeling better overall. This marked a new beginning for me, as I was able to view this entire situation in a new light and use the best given to me out of a bad situation in order to improve myself.

Right now, I am feeling better with each passing day. My outlook on China has changed since I first arrived here, and instead of focusing on when I would return to my hometown of Skopje, I am now able to see Beijing as my home and be more appreciative of the large number of opportunities traveling to China has given me. Of course, I look forward to visiting Macedonia again, but for the time being, I have no problem staying here for a few more months.

We all leave behind certain parts of our lives when we go away from our homes, and for some, the risk of abandoning what they had been building for most of their lives isn’t worth the adventure of creating new ones. However, learning to start over, and rebuild what was started a long time ago from the beginning can lead to the experiences of a lifetime, and change the way people look at many things for the better.

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Images: Tadej Trpkoski

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