Following the lockdown, Wuhan residents traveling in other parts of China soon found themselves no longer welcomed by local hotels and guesthouses, nor were they able to return to Wuhan due to the newly imposed travel restrictions…

She went to the train station, only to find out that no trains will stop at Wuhan anymore. She called the police, but was told to go to a “relief station” — shelter for homeless people. She called the Wuhan mayor’s hotline, to no avail. She even went to the hospital to get a health check, but still no hotels would take her. By then, she had already contacted more than 10 hotels and guesthouses, but was rejected by all, according to her post.

“I don’t understand it. Even if all of us Wuhan people are ‘walking dead,’ to contain the outbreak’s spread, shouldn’t I be allowed to stay indoors? Now I’m forced to go out, and I’ve got nowhere to go,” she wrote.

The post — which was later deleted — went viral, so much so that it drew the attention of the Changsha “internet police,” or censors, who then alerted authorities about her case, the city’s internet regulator said in a statement on Weibo. She finally managed to check into a hotel later that evening, according to the regulator and her own subsequent posts.