Chongqing - “In Uzbekistan, we have a saying. When trouble comes, you can see who is a real friend. And I want to thank China for their help to my country and me.” Said Nusrat, an Uzbek doing a Ph.D. at Chongqing University, while he was sharing his experience during the epidemic on the online seminar. 

On July 30, hosted by Chongqing International Culture Exchange Center,  a cloud seminar - Life in Chongqing during the Epidemic was held among international students in Chongqing. International students from countries including Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, currently studying in Chongqing, joined the online discussion to share their experiences, opinions, and touching moments during the epidemic.

Screenshot of the cloud seminar - Life in Chongqing during the Epidemic

Lorella, who is currently working in Chongqing, said, “During the epidemic, not only citizens here were safe, but also people from abroad have been taken good care of.”   She was visited by the immigration officer, who checked on her, and provided her with information about the epidemic in English. They made sure that she had masks and knew where were the designated hospitals for COVID-19. “As the immigration officer left, he gave me his phone number and told me if I needed any help, I could call him. They kept me updated about the epidemic situation and made sure that I was sound.” Lorella recalled. Many other international students echoed her experiences.

Joseph Kisses, who is from Congo, and currently studies at the Yangtze Normal University, shared his experience and said, “My families were so worrying and called me constantly, as the media they watched sometime mispresented the picture. But I told them that China took very effective measures to contain the epidemic.” 

“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, I have been updated my family about what I experienced here. When the epidemic got more severe in my home country, my family already had a lot of information about how to deal with it.”  Said Nusrat, who is from Uzbekistan and doing a Ph.D. at Chongqing University. He said his university also had a psychologist who could speak English standby for them.

Students spoke highly of the university and government departments’ help to get them through this hard time, online shopping and contactless delivery, citizen’s will to follow the instruction to curb the spreading, and some expressed their concerns for the epidemic back home country.