A Bay Area resident visited Kunming, in China's Yunnan province — about 1,000 miles southwest of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak originated — on January 25.

He said that he saw more safety precautions being taken in China than in the US and that officials understood the gravity of the situation.

Seeing how differently the Chinese and US governments handled the outbreak convinced him that he felt safer in China than he does on American soil.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A 36-year-old US citizen from Cupertino, California, visited Kunming, China, almost 1,000 miles southwest of Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, on January 25.

When the Bay Area resident and user-experience designer — who requested to stay anonymous but whose identity was verified by Business Insider — visited China, there were at least 217 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

And following his trip, he observed just how differently the governments of both countries dealt with the growing outbreak of the virus that has now infected more than 94,000 people and killed more than 3,200 other people.

He told Business Insider that he saw locals and Chinese officials understanding the severity of the outbreak and taking safety precautions. That contrasted heavily with his colleagues' blasé attitudes back in the US and a disorderly experience at San Francisco International Airport upon his return on February 2.