Sars truth scares Beijing

By Holly Williams
BBC, Beijing

Businessman Yang Jiabao has lived in Beijing all his life, but this week, he decided to leave the city for somewhere safer.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or Sars, has infected nearly 700 people in China's capital. Mr Yang said that was too close to home.

Some people are trying to flee the Chinese capital

"I know several people who have caught it already," he explained. "I don't want to wait till it's my turn."

Mr Yang is not alone. Many itinerant workers have fled Beijing, while some university students from other provinces have returned home early.

After playing down the threat of Sars for months - and even enforcing a near media blackout until recently - this week the Chinese authorities made a public show of coming clean about the disease.

The Ministry of Health admitted that officials had under-reported the real number of infected people. The city's mayor has lost his job over the scandal.

But the Chinese public is unused to such frankness, and many people here find the truth terrifying.

We're more and more worried every day

Beijing resident Li Yi

Though he has managed to avoid catching Sars, Mr Yang, who runs an investment company, is already an economic victim of the disease.

He has had to cancel meetings with business partners too afraid to visit, and now he worries that his foreign partners may abandon their Chinese investments.

All over Beijing, restaurants and hotels are empty, while shopping centres struggle for business.

Still, Mr Yang said he was lucky. He has a home in the countryside where he believes he will be relatively safe from Sars.

Other people have no choice but to stay in Beijing.

In his cramped apartment, Li Yi shares just two rooms with his wife, daughter and two parents.

He said it felt smaller recently, because the family does not want to venture outside.

"We're more and more worried every day," he said, "because no one knows how many people have caught it, and no one has come up with a cure or vaccine."

The Chinese Government has finally lifted its news blackout

And as of today, Li Yi's daughter would be staying inside as well. The government has forced all of Beijing's primary and secondary schools to close for two weeks in an attempt to stop the spread of Sars via children - 1.7 million students have had their classes and mid-term exams cancelled.

For months, the Chinese Government told the public that it had Sars under control.

Now people in Beijing know that is not true, their city suddenly seems a frightening place.