Restaurant owner endures three quarantines

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Ironwood - Anny Lin said she understands the urgency to stop the spread of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 after experiencing quarantines and restrictions on movement on a recent visit to China.

Lin, the owner of Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant in Ironwood, traveled to China with her 9-month-old daughter, Amber Chen, for a Lunar New Year visit with family from Jan. 21 to Feb. 28. They arrived just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic and endured isolation throughout the trip.

"We are glad to be back," Lin said. "I have a business here to take care of and I have kids here so I wanted to come home."

Lin said she and her daughter were not ill, nor did they exhibit symptoms of coronavirus during or after the trip. Her husband, Bodie Chen, and 9-year-old son, Alex Gil, 9, who did not travel, are also fine, she said.

"We are all healthy and with no coronavirus," Lin said.

Lin traveled to her parents farm in Changle (pronounced Chaung Lua), in the Fujian Province of east China. It was first time her parents and two siblings got to meet Amber.

"I got there before everything happened," Lin said. "Everything started a week after arriving."

There was concern but the outbreak in Wuhan was more than 600 miles away from the small, country town by the mountains, she said. The government recommended that everyone quarantine at home for 14 days.

"Everybody stayed home," Lin said.

Most everything they needed was at hand at the family farm, she said. The family was together and so in that sense it was a normal celebration to usher in the Year of the Rat.

It was much different in other areas where millions of people were restricted from traveling to be with family for the Lunar New Year. The first quarantine period expired and the government repeated its order to stay home again for a second 14 day quarantine, she said.

"We stayed home for the whole time," Lin said.

The farmers were allowed to go into the field to harvest vegetables for the markets, she said. Other than that movement was restricted to going to the stores a couple times a week.

An official checked to ensure that people were wearing masks and taking temperatures before entering buildings, she said. People maintained distance from others while shopping.

The gate to the road leading into town was watched, she said. If someone tried to get in or out they would go to jail, she said.

People cooperated more easily knowing that the coronavirus was very serious, she said.

"We did not have the virus," she said.

Lin had planned to return to the United States on Feb. 23.

When her airline canceled all China flights because of the coronavirus, she could have re-booked on another airline but waited for a more reasonably priced ticket on Feb. 28.

Lin and her daughter flew from Changle to Shanghai. From there they flew to Canada, with a connection in Chicago and finally to Ironwood.

"We had no problems coming back," Lin said. "The passengers filled out a health card and their temperatures were checked before boarding."

The airline asked if anyone had been to China in the past 14 days, and to Wuhan, specifically, she said.

They asked who had been through a quarantine and who had not.

Upon arrival in Ironwood, Lin was put under another 14 day quarantine by the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department. Lin, nor her daughter displayed any symptoms but it was a precaution.

Lin said Feb. 28 was her "day zero" in Ironwood. On March 13 the two were cleared from isolation by the health department.

Lin said it took about two months from the end of January for China to get the coronavirus under control. She said it is her hope that the same level of cooperation is afforded here so that the government can do its work to get the virus under control that much sooner.

When customers started calling to ask if the restaurant was closed, because of coronavirus, Lin said it worried her that her trip might have caused some fear.

Even with her loyal clientele Lin said she expects the restaurant will struggle along with most other local businesses during the order to shutdown in-dining service. People are spending what little money they have stocking up on food and supplies, and that means there isn't much money left for anything else.

"That will effect every business," Lin said. "They are not going out when they buy so much food that they stay home and cook."

The restaurant remains open six days a week doing takeouts and deliveries for the duration of the coronavirus, she said. The loyal clientele continue to come as they have since she opened her first restaurant in town over 10 years ago and after the move downtown around five years ago, she said.

"We understand," Lin said. "We just want to get this thing over and get everything under control so everybody can get back to the normal schedule and get the kids back in school."