Monday

The guard at the station eyes my ticket: Beijing to Wuhan, the locked-down ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic.

“You sure? No mistake?” he asks. “No mistake,” I say.

My colleague and I disinfect our seats with a wad of wipes the minute we get on the five-hour high-speed train.

I worry coming to Wuhan will change my “green” health code – a contagion risk profile, which determines the difference between going out to dinner or government quarantine.

When I get there, traffic is sparse, though busier than I expected. I chat with people in a park, out for their first strolls after nearly three months indoors.

I walk by Huanan seafood market (pictured below), where experts think the virus emerged, and find it sealed with sheets of corrugated metal, wrapped in police tape, and patrolled by officers.