YUKI JIANG: If you have a room with the right temperature, WIFI, and food. How long can you stay?
CHENXIANG ZHU: For about two years.
JIANG: Chenxiang Zhu is an international student from mainland China. Like many other SU Chinese students, he has not been able to return home for nearly two years. He says airline policies, expensive tickets, and flight cancellation became the main obstacles preventing him from coming back home.
JIANG: Starting from last March, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has announced Chinese airlines should be limited to fly one weekly route to one city per country. This action is to prevent coronavirus cases imported from overseas. This leads to a huge number of tickets being canceled and only expensive ones left.
JIANG: Zhu told me during his three years in college, he could only study and live well in his freshman year. Later, classes were cancelled due to the discrimination incident and protests two years ago and became online because of the pandemic.
JIANG: Fortunately, Zhu quickly adapted to the left-behind life.
ZHU: I’ve been finding pretty interesting things to do. I bought myself a mic. I started making my own covers of songs. And I’ve also continued posting videos as a video blogger on my Youtube and Bilibili channels.
JIANG: But he is still missing his home. Despite the time difference, he makes a video call every week to chat with his parents and grandmother who is suffering from serious brain disease.
ZHU: I heard that she has been ill for quite some time and I’m pretty concerned about her health conditions.
JIANG: Something else pushing him to come back, that must be the food.
ZHU: I’ve actually eaten every delivery, every restaurant, at Syracuse. I heard that a lot of new restaurants are opening in Shanghai and I’m pretty eager to have a little taste of the new things that are going on.
JIANG: Finally, everything goes well and he will return home next month. Yuki Jiang, NCC News.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – As an international student from mainland China, Chenxiang Zhu has not been able to return home for nearly 2 years.
The main obstacles that prevented him from coming back are airline policies, expensive tickets and flight cancellation.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, airlines should be limited to fly one weekly route to one city per country from last March, aiming to prevent coronavirus cases imported from overseas. This leads to a huge number of tickets being canceled and only expensive ones left.
In fact, during his past three years, Zhu could only study and live well in his freshman year. Later, classes were cancelled due to the discrimination incident and protests two years ago and became online because of the pandemic.
Fortunately, he quickly adapted to the “left-behind” life.
“I’ve been finding pretty interesting things to do, ” Zhu said. “I bought myself a mic. I started making my own covers of songs. And I’ve also continued posting videos as a video blogger on my Youtube and Bilibili (a well-known video website in China) channels.”
However, he is still missing his home. Despite the time difference, he makes a video call every week to chat with his parents and grandmother who is suffering from serious brain disease.
“I heard that she has been ill for quite some time and I’m pretty concerned about her health conditions, ” Zhu said.
And he never stops missing the food back there.
“I’ve actually eaten every delivery, every restaurant, at Syracuse, ” Zhu said. “I heard that a lot of new restaurants are opening in Shanghai and I’m pretty eager to have a little taste of the new things that are going on.”
Finally, everything goes well and he will return home next month.
