No heading back: Bali's Chinese tourists fear virus-hit homeland
29 February, 2020
Hundreds of Chinese tourists on holiday in Bali are scrambling to avoid going home, fearing both infection from the deadly new coronavirus and Beijing's handling of the epidemic.
Concerns over the rapidly spreading outbreak prompted Indonesia to shut down all flights to and from China this month, hammering the bottom lines of restaurants, hotels, travel companies and interpreters on the favorite resort island.
But with an increase of than 2,800 dead from the COVID-19 illness on the Chinese mainland, and entire cities under lockdown, immigration officials in Bali say practically a thousand Chinese nationals have requested emergency visa extensions.
"I'm an international refugee," Steve Li, the manager of a European firm in a significant mainland city, told AFP at an upscale mall in the island's capital Denpasar.
"China is like a large prison, all of the cities are locked down," he added.
Li says he will not believe Beijing's assurances that the united states gets the epidemic under control.
While he plans to return to work, Li, who asked never to be discovered by his real name, is leaving his wife and two small children behind to hold back out the general public health crisis.
"I'm managing the business therefore i can't ask my guys to keep to work while I hide here," he said.
Around a million Chinese tourists visit Bali every year - the second-largest band of foreign arrivals after Australians - and inject vast sums of dollars into the local economy.
Thousands travelled there from the mainland for last month's Chinese New Year holiday just as the virus outbreak was starting to snowball, prompting the lockdown of China's Hubei province where in fact the infection was first detected.
Beijing flew home groups of overseas tourists from around Asia last month citing the "practical difficulties" they faced abroad, as fears of the contagion prompted several countries to bar entry to arrivals who had been recently in China.
Just a few dozen Chinese travellers in Bali used the offer.
"I wasn't surprised," Bali Tourism Agency chief Putu Astawa told AFP.
"They don't want to return."
"I'M AFRAID"
Zilong Wang of Beijing said he was postponing his return because he believed his government had underplayed the infection's true toll.
"I'd rather stay static in Bali and watch the problem," the 30-year-old told AFP outside an immigration office swamped with anxious Chinese tourists, waiting in line all night in the hope of extending their stay.
Wang said he was also cautious with other Chinese travellers, regardless of the insufficient confirmed virus cases in Indonesia.
"I've been trying to remain inside hotel," Wang said.
"I am nervous when I meet various other Chinese people in particular when they don't wear masks. I'm afraid to getting infected."
Some travellers are preparing back-up plans in the event their requests to extend their stays are denied.
Heather Wang, an agent from eastern Zhejiang province, has been around Bali since late January and does not have any plans to come back home - even if she cannot stick to the tropical island.
She is waiting to listen to back from the Australian embassy on whether her application for a tourist entry permit has prevailed.
"If Australia doesn't approve my visa I believe I'll be going to Thailand," the 26-year-old added.
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