Scenes from another time of flu

These scenes come to us from San Luis Potosi and other parts of Mexico, where a new strain of influenza has killed at least 150 people. The so-called swine flu has already spread across North America, and may have reached as far as Spain and New Zealand.

A deadly flu outbreak is something we Beijingers lived through six years ago.

Over the Labor Day holiday in May 2003, my family and I drove out to the Ming Tombs. There were few cars on the road and no more than five in the parking lot when we arrived.