In the years of studying in China, I have been impressed by the peacefulness, stability and liveliness of this country. People had been pursuing their dreams in earnest and with ease up until December 2019, when China announced a major epidemic outbreak. A new type of epidemic called COVID-19 was spreading amongst people, and the infected were facing life threats all the time. What was even more desperate is that there had been no record of this virus in the medical history of mankind, leaving people at a loss as to what to do about it. In order not to risk more lives, the whole country entered a state of strict vigilance. All units including companies and schools were shut down one after another, which changed people's life completely. Plenty of pessimistic thoughts came into my mind at that moment – worrying that the number of the infected would increase endlessly, since, after all, China has a population of 1.4 billion; worrying that people would not have access to timely supplies of food and water, since restaurants and markets were all closed; worrying that the economy would have a downturn, since people were staying at home and many companies were out of normal functioning. But then I found that the Chinese people had overcome all these difficulties with their wisdom and cohesion, which surprised me and made me admire.

  　Stay at home! Following the advice of the news media, I together with hundreds of millions of Chinese switched to the "stay at home" mode – eat, study, exercise and entertain at home. I was really not used to it during the first few days, but later I gradually found that there was nothing inconvenient except for not being able to get together with friends, all of which actually owed greatly to the rapid development of China's internet. Some food delivery platforms like Meituan, ele.me and Baidu worked stably, and I had my favorite roast duck, steak and even Chongqing hot pot during the epidemic. As an old Chinese saying goes, "prepare in advance." In my opinion, the development of internet industry is a kind of preparation in advance for this special period. It is the existence of those delivery platforms that maintained us at home and easily got us what we want with just one mobile phone.

　The convenience of internet was felt not only in life but also in our work and study. The "Ding Talk" which, encountering complaints from Chinese high school students on the internet though, dispelled the worries of my top-student friends so that their learning progress did not fall much behind because of the epidemic. Using this application, teachers were able to provide online classes, and also to call the roll, ask questions, ask students to raise their hands and speak as they did in class. In addition, I learned from some friends who are already working that before this, many enterprises were also using similar applications in their management, such as daily clocking in, checking attendance, reporting, meetings and making reimbursement. The development of these functions may seem very simple, but it is very difficult in practice. Fortunately, there are some "top notch" figures in science and engineering in China, who are fast and accurate in developing applications, which in my opinion is very remarkable.

　The year of 2020 is destined to be an extraordinary one. The outbreak of this pandemic makes us reflect on our insufficiency in disease prevention and control and disaster response, and also allows us to feel the warmth of human nature and enjoy the benefits of scientific and technological innovation. I sincerely pray for mankind that such an epidemic will never happen again, and if it does, I hope everyone will have learnt enough from this crisis. Next month I will be able to study in the bright classrooms again. I will work harder in the hope that human beings will have enough strength to save themselves at a critical moment like this. Such is my 2020.