An outsider's life in a lockdown city

Bentley has also heard that the local authorities would send inspectors to every home in the next few days to check on the health of residents.

Staying in his company's apartment in Yueqing, Bentley is stuck at home most of the time and reads e-books. He goes out occasionally to buy necessities. Besides being bored, everything else seems all right with him.

The supermarket in his neighborhood has adequate supplies of food, such as meat, fish and vegetables, and prices are stable. Bentley also bought enough face masks before they ran out of stock.

Despite the hardship and inconvenience encountered, Bentley reckons such tough measures to control the outbreak are necessary although painful. "I think it's like going to the dentist. You either do it now and it hurts, or you don't do it now and later it will hurt much more and be far worse."

The strict anti-epidemic measures in the small city have given him confidence that the nation can defeat the virus and ride out the crisis. "From what I've read, what I've heard and what I've seen myself, I'm hopeful that the Chinese government can deal with it.