Xiaotangshan, a small settlement on Beijing's outskirts, has become a virtual ghost town since last Wednesday when the municipal government began constructing a temporary hospital with more than 1,000 beds for Sars patients.
Most shops in Xiaotangshan were closed yesterday and migrant workers were seen fleeing the town, about 40km north of Beijing. Many who have stayed are stockpiling food and have locked themselves in their homes.
Clothes salesman Mr Tang was found sleeping on the floor of his tiny store in the deserted market yesterday afternoon. The Hubei native said most migrant workers had fled since they heard from the local radio that the government was moving about 300 Sars patients to an isolation zone behind Xiaotangshan Hospital.
Many of the town's 35,000 residents said they knew little about the government's plan. Acting mayor Wang Qishan inspected the construction site last Friday and praised the project as an 'important step' in battling Sars.
Not far away, behind the wall of Xiaotangshan sanatorium, about 4,000 construction workers from six major state construction companies in Beijing were working around the clock to put up rows of white prefabricated buildings on the 40-hectare site.
They were under orders to finish the huge project early this week and many are sleeping on the ground between shifts. Workers yesterday said that rooms in the new complex were separated from each other with their own toilet and a construction supervisor said there was room for expansion. It was not clear how many Sars patients would be moved from hospitals in Beijing city. However, the Xiaotangshan project's magnitude indicates the problem might be more serious than official figures suggested and many more new cases would surface in coming weeks. Latest figures showed that Beijing has 988 confirmed Sars cases, with at least 48 fatalities.
