Traditionally, hundreds gathered in front of the old Hankow Customs House building, one of the city’s most popular New Year’s Eve venues. When the old bell of the building reached midnight, many people released balloons into the air, cheering and shouting ‘happy new year’.
“I’m so so incredibly happy,” said 20-year-old student and tourist Yang Wenxuan. “This is my first time in Wuhan. But it (the countdown) was so spectacular.”
“I hope I can successfully complete my bachelor’s degree and I hope I can get a boyfriend,” Yang added.
The celebrations came 12 months after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had first contracted pneumonia of an unknown cause in Wuhan, which later became known as the world’s first outbreak of Covid-19.
A team of WHO experts will arrive in China in January 2021 to investigate the origins of the pandemic.
Wuhan has been largely virus-free for months and has vaccinated specific groups of locals over the past few days. But a recent small increase in cases in various Chinese cities, including Beijing, has reminded people in Wuhan that the pandemic is not over yet.
“I hope that everything in the country will go well in 2021 and that Wuhan can return to normal and I hope that the world can defeat the pandemic soon,” said Anson Yang, a resident of Wuhan.
The 25-year-old, who works in the international trade sector, said his earnings had suffered in 2020 and he knows of many businesses in Wuhan that have yet to return to normal trading levels.
Several students longed for an end to the pandemic so that they could continue with personal studies. However, one university student learned positive lessons from the fight against the pandemic.
“When we look at the measures that people have taken, the things that people have done as part of the epidemic control and the like, a human or friendly touch, is something we would not normally see, felt by everyone,” the 21-year-old said. Chen Mengfan.