Wuhan University in Hubei Province attracts Chinese people not only for its wonderful academic performance, but also for its beautiful springtime cherry blossoms.
Every year residents and tourists coming from afar choose to blend in with the students in the university to enjoy the cherry blossoms. The cherry trees have a very short flowering season, making people quite eager to see them in full bloom. The prime blooming season is generally March, during which visitors flock to the university daily to appreciate the beauty of the blossoms. In order to ensure safety, the university limits the daily maximum number of visitors to 30,000.
Wuhan University last week issued a public letter, saying that starting from this year, the campus will be open free of charge for three consecutive years to frontline medical staff and their family members and those who fought the coronavirus during the pandemic in Hubei Province last year. According to the university notice, March 13 and 14, 2021 are the special days set aside for medical staff and their families, and no other reservations are allowed those two days.
The public letter is an expression of gratitude to all medical staff and pandemic fighters. In order to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the hardest-hit city in China, Wuhan was locked down Jan. 23, 2020. The city was reopened April 8, 2020 after a 76-day lockdown. During the period more than 42,000 medical staff from all over the country came to the rescue of Hubei Province and its capital city Wuhan. Wuhan University was also closed to outsiders during the cherry blossom season in 2020 to avoid a rebound of infections. With the closure of the university, cherry petals may have felt a little bit lonely last year. "When the outbreak passes, let's go to see the cherry blossoms together," the university promised in a notice in March last year.
The invitation is a good step for Wuhan to get fair treatment internationally. Frankly speaking, there were many different emotions emerging around about the outbreak, especially negative ones concerning Wuhan, such as fear, isolation, misunderstanding, biased reporting and even false accusations, concocted lies and groundless slandering. In January 2021, a World Health Organization expert team was invited to do detailed research in Wuhan to trace the origin of COVID-19. China granted full access to all sites and personnel requested by the WHO experts. They visited food markets, various hospitals, disease control centers and research institutions, and finally declared that Wuhan was very unlikely to have been the source of the pandemic.
The university's invitation also shows that Wuhan is a city that can keep its promise and is a city with a heart of gratitude. The city wants to express its respect and sincere thanks to all medical workers who rushed to the rescue of Hubei at the risk of their own lives last year.
Meanwhile, the flowering cherry blossoms are icons of Wuhan. Many netizens made a wish to "take off masks, eat a bowl of hot dry noodle and appreciate the beauty of the flower in Wuhan University" when the outbreak ends. With cherry blossoms as a name card of Wuhan, the invitation will also help renew the luster of a once locked-down Wuhan, lift the spirit of its people and rebound its economy. The pandemic in 2020 greatly affected and even destroyed some of Wuhan's pillar industries such as tourism. With the disruption of local citizens’ normal life, the sacrifice of the local economy and the strictest epidemic prevention and prevention and control measures, the city won for China and even the whole world an opportunity to curb the virus.
Furthermore, what is the function of an elite university? In my point of view, as a prestigious higher learning institution, Wuhan University should not only teach science and knowledge to its students, but more importantly, nurture young talents by passing on Chinese virtues such as patriotism, devotion, integrity, gratitude, inclusiveness and perseverance to them.
(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)