Getting confined was a shared experience in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. At one point, as many as 300 million people across 70 cities were in some form of a lockdown under the government’s strict zero-COVID policy. But imagine being trapped in a place you can’t leave. CNA correspondent Wei Du hears the heartbreaking stories of two people who found that the longest journey in the world, was the one to get back home.

01:45 – Susu’s holiday in Xinjiang begins
05:36 – Trapped and unable to leave
15:35 – China ends zero-COVID
17:04 – The situation in the Foxconn factory
20:09 – Jie’s long detour home

Written and produced by: Wei Du
Co-producer: Andersen Xia
Editors: Crispina Robert and Tiffany Ang
Social Media Editor: Joanne Chan
Sound Designer: Kenn Delbridge

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"There were only two things on my mind, to find food and to not go crazy.” For millions of residents in China, the mandatory lockdown in mid-2022 still lingers like a recurring nightmare. In this episode, CNA correspondent Wei Du traces the steps of people whose lives were upended by China’s zero-COVID policy and who are still grappling with the sudden end of it.

05:40 – Inside the hospitals during the outbreak
08:08 – Life as a COVID-19 swabber
17:47 – Lockdown enforcer

Written and produced by: Wei Du
Co-producer: Andersen Xia
Editors: Crispina Robert and Tiffany Ang
Social Media Editor: Joanne Chan
Sound Designer: Sai Ye Wint

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the rest of the world opened doors in mid-2022 and moved on from the COVID-19 pandemic, 300 million Chinese people remained in mandatory lockdown under China’s strict zero-COVID policy. At the height of the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak, food became scarce, medicine was hard to come by and survival became a daily struggle.

Hear the emotional stories of those who still carry the scars in this 2-part CNA special.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.