A massive number of visitors to the area have been stuck in the region all that time, and are financially distressed by the high cost of accommodation and food.
Many people have voluntarily given money to the officials in order to get early approval to leave Xinjiang.
Bribing the Authorities
Mr. Lee was selling farming and irrigation equipment in Xinjiang. His company is headquartered in Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province of China.Leaving Xinjiang requires reporting to and getting approval from the authorities. Lee said that some people would just leave at any cost, and thus bribed the community officials to quickly get a travel pass.
He said, “You’ll need to report [apply] to the local pandemic prevention department through the local community center. You’ll sign an agreement with personal data, and [your] destination. After three to five days of home isolation at the community and signing the agreement offline, the approval will be issued online about a day after. The local pandemic prevention department will then call the command center to certify the approval. Then you can leave.”
He emphasized that it’s only applicable for people in the low risk region. People in the high risk area will not be allowed to leave, unless there is an urgent matter, such as, a funeral service, at home. This is what local authorities told a friend of his in the high risk area.
The Epoch Times is unable to confirm the regulations that are in place in during the lockdown in Xinjiang
Lee said the approval is done in batches. Many people were anxious to leave as quickly as possible, and would bribe the community leaders with the hope of moving up on the application list.
“It’s 3,000 yuan (about $413.55) a person to get an early approval. That’s like an underground profit chain,” he said.
There are also people who are selling the certified approval, according to Lee.
Lee said he finally made it out of Xinjiang on Nov. 7. It took him 24 hours to drive out of the area. “There were many vehicles stuck at the checkpoint for PCR tests. It will take four to five hours for a test to be done,” he said.
One Meal A Day
Mr. Lin was a resident from Hebei, a province in northern China. He was stuck in Xinjiang in August while on a business trip.Coming from a foreign province, his lodging became an issue. He said, “The hotel is too expensive, so I work as a helper at the quarantine site so that I still get to eat at the minimum.”
He said that August is the hiring season for temporary workers to go to Xinjiang to pick cotton, pears, and apples. But the lockdown has kept them there after the harvesting season was over. Most of them would have to leave Xinjiang on foot because public transportation has been suspended.
“There are hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in Xinjiang. There are also street vendors from outside of Xinjiang,” he said.
He explained that the quarantine is very expensive, “The cost of isolation for a week to 10 days could cost several thousand yuan [hundreds of dollars], not many people can afford it,” he said.
To save money, some people eat just one meal a day.
“There’s no day time or night time. People would probably just eat a little when they wake up, and that’s it for the day,” he said.
The extreme measures of the zero-COVID policy have many people suffering, the youngsters in particular. “Life is a mess,” Lin said.
