{"id":8275,"date":"2022-12-11T10:59:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T10:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astronomerinbeijing.com\/?p=8275"},"modified":"2022-12-11T10:59:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T10:59:41","slug":"and-november-comes-to-a-halt-covid-testing-isolation-and-the-end-of-covid-zero-in-beijing-and-some-fun-things-before-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astronomerinbeijing.com\/index.php\/2022\/12\/11\/and-november-comes-to-a-halt-covid-testing-isolation-and-the-end-of-covid-zero-in-beijing-and-some-fun-things-before-that\/","title":{"rendered":"And November Comes to a Halt: COVID Testing, Isolation, and the end of COVID Zero in Beijing (and some fun things before that)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi Everyone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you all for returning to my Astronomer in Beijing blog. I hope this post finds you all safe, happy, and healthy. For those of you in the US, I hope you had a wonderful and festive Thanksgiving (unfortunately with the rise of cases, mine was relatively quiet, though I had a lovely zoom call with my parents and Jesse) and were able to spend it safely with your friends and family. And for all my readers, I hope you have a festive and happy holiday season and a joyous New Year! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I dive into this month’s post, I’m sure some of you may have noticed that this post is coming a week later than usual. Honestly, I had this post nearly finished last Sunday. However, I woke up on Sunday morning to a WeChat message from my landlord informing me that my most recent COVID test had come back mixed and I needed to stay in my apartment until someone came to give me another test. As I may have mentioned here previously, China generally does batch COVID tests, meaning 10 swabs per test tube, so they couldn’t say that I tested positive, just someone in my batch. As you can probably imagine, this is the worst case scenario (COVID Zero was still in effect and while people now seem to be able to do home quarantines, just a week ago, it was a lot less clear). Thankfully, at no point did I feel unwell, so it was just an agonizingly nerve-wrecking day for me. I spent much of the morning figuring out where I could send Goldie if I needed to be sent to isolation and I even packed a suitcase (lots of warm clothes – apparently the heat in the quarantine facilities is subpar, dried fruit, and granola bars)! Of particular annoyance is that despite someone from the Chinese health management system calling me on Sunday twice (the first time, the person just hung up on me when I got frustrated with him for asking me if I have a friend who can speak Chinese and I replied that I don’t [honestly, it’s my health and it’s really difficult to just hand that off even to a good friend], while for the second person I was able to send them a text with my address in Mandarin), nobody came to administer a test. I had heard from members of the Safe & Sane WeChat group that it might take more than a day for medical personnel to arrive, so I assumed someone would come on Monday. I went about my day on Monday and despite receiving a similar phone call at 4:30pm and again sending them my address in Mandarin, nobody came. On Tuesday morning, I sent a WeChat message to my landlord and community organizer explaining the situation. Though the community organizer was a bit nonchalant at first, my landlord’s emphasis that I’d been waiting since Sunday seemed to do the trick and at 3:45 on Tuesday (a full 2.5 days after being told I was in a mixed batch) I finally had someone knock on my door to give me a NAT and a rapid (at home) test. Thankfully the rapid test came back negative, because it took another 27 hours for the NAT result to be processed (apparently there have been delays throughout the city – usually it takes 9 – 12 hours, so I had initially assumed someone entered my name incorrectly). I was told originally that I would need 3 negative tests in 3 days to be deemed out of risk, but nobody has come to give me a test since, so I think that given the dismantling of COVID Zero (more on that below), I’m in the clear. Thankfully the government also just made it so you don’t need to register to order rapid tests, so I ordered a box of 25 just to be safe for the future (although I’m still waiting for them to actually ship). While I came out of this COVID scare unscathed and healthy (and I by no means mean to trivialize any of your own experiences with actually having COVID), it certainly made for a mentally taxing week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you probably could infer from my own experience, November and early December has been a tumultuous month to be a Beijinger (thank you to all of you who reached out to me directly or to my parents to see if I was ok. I know Beijing isn’t usually in the news in regards to non-global affairs things, and it’s nice to be remembered and thought of) . As I mentioned briefly in my last blog, the end of October saw a slight uptick in the number of COVID cases (closer to 30 – 40 per day) and unfortunately, those numbers have basically continued to rise (although in the last few days, the statistics have become meaningless since testing isn’t mandatory). At the peak of the wave (at least the peak of the wave when they were testing), the government was reporting ~ 3000-4000 COVID cases per day. And of those, somewhere between 200 and 800 seem to be out in the wild (meaning people not in isolation\/lockdown\/quarantine). While these numbers are more the norm in the US, this represents the highest number of COVID cases in Beijing since early in 2020. As such, much of the city has been thrown into a tailspin. While the city did not implement as dramatic methods to try to curb the spread of COVID as in the Spring (despite more cases being reported), much of daily life has been impacted. For example, most schools (K – 12) have been remote since the middle of November. Additionally, the city had shifted from mandating a 72 hour COVID test to enter public spaces to a 48 hour COVID test (although this has all been halted in the last week with the end of COVID Zero). Furthermore, most malls and other public spaces (including restaurants) were closed or closed for dine-in dining (again, now restaurants are open, requiring a 48 hour test). Thankfully for me, despite the high number of COVID cases, I wasn’t terribly impacted (well, at least until last Sunday). The major change is that I’ve been working from home for the better part of the last month and I haven’t really done anything beyond get a COVID test and take out the trash outside of my apartment since November 19th (Do note, that before this week, this has primarily been my choice as I was trying to avoid testing positive and ending up in a quarantine hospital – though even being as cautious as I was, I still got a bad hand from the system). While the first week of working from home was my choice (with the rising case numbers, I didn’t think I needed to spend my mornings and evening on a packed subway train), starting on November 21st, Tsinghua required a 24 hour COVID test in order to enter the campus. Since I was not really keen on waiting outside in the cold (because winter has arrived here in Beijing and waiting to get tested for 10 – 20 minutes in the cold isn’t fun), I decided it made more sense to just stay put. Additionally, last week, the University further closed by not allowing any faculty and staff onto campus without having to apply (and basically you need a reason to enter campus, which I don’t have). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While (prior to last week) I have not been directly impacted by the latest wave of COVID yet, this time, Tsinghua’s campus population has been. One of the other reasons I was reticent to enter campus when I could is that there have been multiple positive cases among both the student population and in the family area (One of the more unique and unusual things about Tsinghua and some other Chinese Universities is that there is a large community of people who live on the campus grounds. Some of these people are affiliated with the university, but some of them are not – I believe they had to have a connection at some point – so there are basically entire complexes of people that live on the campus in one corner of the grounds). For my fellow postdocs who live on campus this has meant that they can’t even go to our office (which happened to get locked down two Saturday’s ago due to a positive case). Additionally, at least two of the Chinese postdocs have had to do home isolation due to being a close contact and one was sent to central quarantine (his description makes it sound very very bad). Additionally, prior to the recent announcements, the added influx of cases throughout China added new policies that basically block travelers from visiting restaurants, museums, or basically any tourist site for 5 days upon arrival to various cities. Thankfully, those policies have now been repealed, so it is more likely that either I will be able to visit Jesse or Jesse visit me when things calm down here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the influx of COVID cases, there was a build up of unrest throughout China stemming from local government’s strict enforcement of the COVID Zero Policy throughout much of November. As some of you are probably aware and may remember from when my own hutong apartment complex locked down, the standard practice had been to set up large metal fences and gates to lockdown buildings and compounds where positive cases are detected. However, as we learned about from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, locking people into compounds that are inevitably fire hazards is a terrible idea. As such, there have been numerous instances where people (especially young children) have been trapped in buildings and been unable to receive medical attention (with the blame usually being laid by the local government on the feet of individual employees of either the compound or hospital not doing their job). However, this all came to a head when a deadly fire in Urumqi led to the deaths of 10 people and ignited protests across the nation (including at Tsinghua and Peking University) where people are calling for an end to lockdowns. I’m not going to wax poetic on the COVID Zero policy as I’ve done my fair share of complaining about it in previous posts already. However, it was comforting to see Chinese nationals complain about the restrictions and heavy mental toll these policies have taken (Although I’m obviously a bit concerned on what the overall reaction to all of the protesting will be by the government as large public demonstrations are not condoned here and the reports have not been glowing about how things were handled). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the extra week for this blog post, however, It seems like the government’s response has been a total dismantling of the COVID Zero policy. Initially, the government reacted with a few vague changes and an official outlawing of the use of metal fences to block compounds (though in the weeks following that policy announcement, I still saw some fences up near the Drum Tower). Furthermore, starting last Monday (before the full dismantling), the 48 COVID test requirement for riding the subway and going to hospitals was removed. Last Wednesday, the final pieces were announced when the government announced that outside of a few key places (schools, hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants, and gyms – at least in Beijing), people no longer need to get tested. The also have dismantled the elaborate quarantine isolation centers (they are turning some into actual hospitals) and are allowing people who test positive and have mild cases to remain at home. While many of the recommendations for home isolation feel like they were taken verbatim from US announcements I saw in 2020, it’s definitely a relief to know that if I do wind up testing positive, I won’t be forced into a scary COVID quarantine hospital (I already know multiple Kehillat Shanghai members and people in the Astronomy Department at Tsinghua who have tested positive in the last few days). I will say, that while I’m glad to see the removal of Zero COVID (and it should allow for easier travel between Beijing and Shanghai – Jesse and I are waiting a bit just to make sure there aren’t any unforeseen policies before we travel), the overall emphasis on Omicron being just like the flu has me a tad concerned as there are a few people I know who were relishing that this meant they don’t need to get vaccinated. I’ve said before that if I needed to get a COVID shot every month, I would. It’s concerning that people don’t understand that the key to milder cases is vaccination. Given the already high case counts in Beijing before the removal of COVID Zero, I hope we don’t see a spike in serious cases and deaths here. I’m also concerned that the increased vaccination drive is just happening now. It feels like this should have been the memo once the vast lockdowns in Shanghai happened. I know the government is trying to convince people, but I fear that they are a bit behind the eight ball if things immediately return to normal. I will say that despite the return to normal policies, masking policies still remain in place throughout the country (and Tsinghua is still asking us to work from home). While I’m glad to see these changes, I still think that the months ahead will be a bit tumultuous. . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all of my forced isolation, I can’t help but be a little blue with the holiday season rapidly approaching. Last year, things seemed so optimistic with the nearly zero case count. I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving and go to multiple Channukkah celebrations. This year, that’s all still unknown. Thanksgiving was spent alone and I’m not terribly optimistic that I’ll feel comfortable with large Channukkah celebrations this year. With that said, I hope you all take time to see (either virtually or in person) your loved ones (and maybe reach out to those you won’t be able to see). Living half a world away from my parents and the rest of my extended family (and even a 3 hour bullet train ride from Jesse), I’ve really come to appreciate getting e-mails, texts, and other updates from people just asking how I’ve been doing and what I’ve been up to. It’s hard to be so isolated (especially given the situation in Beijing right now) and anything from a familiar face helps! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So with the heavy lifting out of the way, here’s what I was able to do before things shut down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lunar Eclipse<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it seems like it was much more than a month ago, early in November brought Astronomy back into the public eye because of the Lunar Eclipse. Although I think many of you probably weren’t able to see it in the US unless you were awake early in the morning, in Beijing, the peak of the Lunar eclipse was 7pm, which meant that I was able to get some great views of the eclipse on Tsinghua’s campus. As you can see in the photos, the moon was very full and very red (I was definitely a little worried that the air pollution would impact our ability to see the Eclipse and was very glad to be wrong). If you can zoom in on the photos below, I recommend it just to see the moon a bit more clearly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think the one down side of the Eclipse viewing was that I didn’t get to look at the moon through a telescope (I really do miss all of those nights setting up the telescope for public observing at BU). The Tsinghua Astronomy Society (which is made up of Undergrads and Grads) did set up a telescope on the main athletic field near our building, but when Richard, Pablo, Daniele, and I got there, it was rather crowded and chaotic and everyone was just staring at a computer screen, which didn’t seem to be worth it (so we went and found prettier areas of the campus to look at the moon). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a brief Astronomy lesson, in case anyone is wondering why we have a full moon every month, but not a lunar eclipse, the reason is that the orbit of the earth around the sun and the moon around the earth don’t lie in the same plane. Since you need the alignment to be Sun, Earth, Moon (the shadow from the Earth falls onto the Moon), this will only happen with a specific geometry, preventing it from being a monthly occurrence. As for the red color, much like the sky appears red at sundown, the moon appears red because the light from the sun at shorter wavelengths will be scattered more (the blue light), but at longer wavelengths, the light is scattered less by the earth’s atmosphere. This light is then reflected by the moon creating the red color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sichuan Vegan Cooking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literally the last thing that I did before everything seemed to get cancelled was going to the November Vegans of Beijing Cooking Class. Since this months theme was Sichuan cuisine, I invited Richard to join me (since he really loves spicy food). For those of you who are less familiar with different types of Chinese Cuisine, Sichuan cuisine comes from the Sichuan region of Western China and is known for its spicy flavors. To note, one of the major differences between spicy cuisine here and the spicier Mexican or Indian food that I’ve had in the US is that the spiciness isn’t just in regards to heat, but also to the numbing spice in Sichuan peppercorns. This means that while the food is spicy, there isn’t necessarily the overwhelming desire to guzzle water after eating the dishes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At this month’s class, we made 3 different dishes (fish fragrant mushrooms – more on the name later, dan dan noodles, and crispy tofu). However, the overarching component of all of these dishes was the homemade chili oil that we started the class by making. Because it’s difficult to make an individual portion of chili oil (much like how my Mom never makes just a single jar of jam), we made the chili oil together as a group. Because I’ve never made an infused oil before, I was pretty surprised by the number of non-chili spices and aromatics that we included in the chili oil (star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, cardimom, bay leaf, scallions, and ginger). However, we did add a ton of chili powder! The finished project was really delicious (and had a wonderful kick!). It certainly added a lot to the rest of the dishes that we made! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After making the chili oil, we turned our attention to the fish fragrant mushrooms. In terms of the name, obviously this is a vegan event, so no fish were harmed in the making of this dish, but like “chicken fried tofu” referring to the type of frying, fish fragrant mushrooms refers to the classical seasoning (a mix of pickled chilis, garlic, scallion, ginger) used originally to season fish. I’ve had this style of dish before with eggplant and found the oyster mushrooms to be an excellent way to enjoy the dish! Of the three dishes that we made, this was probably my favorite (see the top picture below)! I’d used king oyster mushrooms in a dry pot mushroom dish, but I love how this was texturally and flavor-wise totally different. One of my favorite things was the addition of the black fungus mushrooms, which added a little different texture and extra deliciousness (you can see an action shot of Richard cooking below)! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our next dish was Dan Dan noodles, a classic Sichuan dish of noodles topped with as spicy sauce made with fermented veggies and traditionally minced pork. Instead of the pork, we used shiitake mushrooms, which added a really nice flavor to the dishes. I’d been wanting to try Dan Dan noodles, but since they aren’t usually vegetarian, I hadn’t and these did not disappoint! One of the most interesting things I found was how the noodles were cooked. For starters, if you’ve had Chinese noodles, you’ve probably noticed that they are not cooked al dente like Italian noodles. Instead, they aim for a softer overall noodle. We also used fresh noodles, which I discovered are NOT made with eggs here! One of the most interesting things was how the noodles are actually cooked. We add the noodles to boiling water, but when they are almost done, you add cold water to the pot to slow the cooking. Depending on how wide your noodle is, you might repeat this multiple times (ours were relatively thin). It’s really cool to see the differences with noodles, since Italians imported them via the Silk Road and Marco Polo! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our last dish was the crispy tofu and chili sauce! This was a classic fried tofu dish (we deep fried it, but you can also pan fry it, which I’ll probably do when I make it at home). As you can see, we cut the tofu into nugget sized pieces and then lightly dredged it in corn starch. I was surprised that that was all we needed for the breading! While I’m not an expert in deep frying by any means (you can see some action shots of Richard and me doing our deep frying), it was interesting to use chop sticks to move the tofu in the oil. Our chef did a great job in showing us how to fry the tofu without making too much of a mess, too! And here, we got to use our delicious chili oil (with some additional soy sauce, ginger, garlic, onion, and other seasoning) to make a scrumptious dipping sauce (the tofu itself is pretty bland, but that sauce is amazing). You could also glaze the tofu with the sauce, which is something I’ll be trying in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Given the isolation and shut down that started right after this class, I’m glad the last social thing I got to do was so much fun! Additionally, Richard really enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun to go with a friend! I just found out that the next cooking class will be next week. Because I’m still a bit cautious about returning to social events (since the case number was very high in Beijing before the removal of the COVID Zero policies), I’m very happy that December’s class will have a virtual component, so I can join from home (and so can Jesse)! I can’t wait to learn how to make some more yummy dishes! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vegan Market<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in November (before we knew that the case count would explode), Richard, Tom, and I went to the November Vegan Market. To not repeat myself too much from previous posts, I really love the community and camaraderie at these events! I’ve gotten to know a few of the different vendors and the organizers, so it’s nice to see familiar faces in Beijing. This month, I had a delicious authentic French crepe (the chef is from Provence) with homemade vegan mozzarella, tomatoes, and an olive tapenade, as well as a ton of delicious baked goods! It’s also really cool to see some local musicians and hear some live music! Unfortunately, I didn’t win anything in the raffle this time, but Tom did (I’m always happy to give a donation for the animal shelters that Vegans of Beijing donates to)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And here’s my haul from this months market! Some of the highlights include homemade vegan yogurt, the best focaccia in Beijing (Richard, Tom, and I got the last three pieces), vegan cheese cake, vegan fudge, pretzel bark, and lots of other sweets. With the current COVID situation, having some delicious desserts in my freezer has been a nice comfort at the end of the day! And while I’m always happy to make my own desserts, the offerings here tend to be far superior to most of the bakeries that I find in Beijing. Since I don’t know when the next market will be, I’m glad we got to have this one! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Life at Tsinghua (and more Research Outside of Tsinghua)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I only spent the first part of the month going in to the office to do work, I did do a lot of science this month. As I’ve mentioned the last few posts, I’m currently writing up Project Radio and I think I’ve constructed a pretty solid argument as to why what I find is interesting. For those of you who don’t remember, Project Radio is my study of the differences between bent, double-lobed radio sources inside and outside of cluster candidates. It’s an extension of my dissertation work and utilizes new data from the LOFAR radio telescope. I’m happy to report that the paper is approximately 80% written (all but four sections – and two of those are the abstract and conclusion, which should be pretty straight forward to write) and 90% of the science is done (I just need to add some error bars to a few plots and tweak some of the analysis in one of the sections that I’m still writing up). I found that in working from home, I was able to better devote hour long blocks just to writing and it really helped me focus. Jesse and I synched up our schedules so that I would stay focused on actually putting words on the page or making plots and not get too distracted by random Wechat alerts or e-mails. I’m hoping to keep this strategy going as I continue to finish up this paper and eventually write up Project Morphology. I’ve already sent the paper draft to a couple of my closer collaborators and have gotten some good feedback on the paper. I’m hoping to finish up the draft by the end of this coming week so that I can send out the paper to all of my co-authors between December 15 and 20th so that they might be able to read through it during the Holiday break. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of my other projects, I haven’t had as much time to work on those. I’ve been so focused on making sure that Project Radio gets done, that I haven’t spent too much time studying galaxy morphology. I do plan to remedy that a bit in the coming weeks as I want to make sure that the Galapagos code is working properly before the Christmas break in the US\/Europe (in case I have questions on that end) and before the Lunar New Year break here (in case I need anything reset). It’s definitely a bit tricky to juggle so many different projects, so I’m hoping I can find a bit of balance in the coming year. I did however, have a really interesting meeting with one of the other professors here at Tsinghua (one who ironically collaborates with Jesse), about collaborating on some cluster science and I’m hoping to progress those projects in 2023 as well (I’ve got to start cranking out papers since I’ll be on the job market next fall). Additionally, this month, I advised some of the Tsinghua graduate students on a presentation on galaxy evolution and environmental star formation quenching that I had proposed for their research seminar class. The students did a really great job presenting the nuances of environmental quenching (the various processes involved in the removal of cold gas from galaxies so that stars no longer form) and it was also nice to get to know a few of the students who aren’t in my research group. I also invited Jesse to give a presentation in my group meeting on DESI cluster science since there is a lot of interest in DESI within my research group. Additionally, though not directly related to my own research, we welcomed a new professor to the department this month, who happened to go to graduate school with Jesse at the University of Michigan (Prof. Hui Li). It’ll nice to have another familiar face in the department whenever we’re allowed to return to campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I wasn’t on campus much this month, I did snap a few pretty pictures of the campus and wanted you to enjoy them! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although not science related, this month, Tom & I were asked by the International Scholars Office at Tsinghua if we might be interested in performing at the Tsinghua University Gala (basically a big music and dance show done across the whole campus – I’d previously shown off my skills doing karaoke at the International Scholars New Years party). While unfortunately the COVID surge threw a wrench into the plans and the Gala has been officially postponed (and likely cancelled), Tom and I did put together a demo of Let it Be by the Beatles that I hope you’ll enjoy. I do the vocals and Tom does everything else (and yes, that’s his full set up for digital music!). Tom did an amazing job creating the various background tracks and putting everything together and it was really nice to collaborate on something. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again! <\/p>\n\n\n\n