If you want to fly to anywhere in Asia, and don’t mind flying on a Chinese airline with a stop-over in a Chinese airport, you’re looking at less than $600 round trip.
Peter from Long Island writes I in a comment:
Everybody’s going mucking fental about this virus when the ordinary, garden-variety flu knocks off at least 15,000 people in the US every year.
So you recommend taking advantage of the cheap airfares?
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Lion of the Blogosphere 
Everybody’s going mucking fental about this virus when the ordinary, garden-variety flu knocks off at least 15,000 people in the US every year.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 28, 2020 at 3:41 PM
I thought the same thing yesterday when the stock market took that huge dive. Why should this be so important? So what if 81 people in China die? Why would investors think that should cause the entire US financial system to collapse?
Hermes
January 28, 2020 at 4:20 PM
We don’t trust Chinese statistics, and it’s unclear this early on what the true death rate, infection rate, or length of time you can catch it before being exposed are. If you’re able to spread it a week before symptoms show and take 2-3 weeks to die, there could be both a lot more poeple infected than anyone knows yet and a much higher death rate than the early numbers suggest. And the fear itself will hurt some economic sectors like travel.
Dylan
January 28, 2020 at 4:40 PM
The Chinese reaction to the virus is what is causing the stock market to drop, not the actual virus. Already Chinese factories have shut down, people are staying home, and products aren’t being shipped. An overreaction to a non-event can still cause significant economic damage.
Peter Akuleyev
January 29, 2020 at 4:15 AM
Your mistake, Peter, is that nCoV isn’t like SARS, Ebola or the swineflu. It’s way more contagious, and in 2+% deadly.You may have noticed that a country like China, which is dictatorial and competent and thus has much better resources for containment than any other country, is struggling to keep this virus from spreading.
The common flu has been mostly tamed for now, there are vaccines and we’ve studied it intensively; for nCoV not much is known.
OT: The day, the exponential increase tops, I say book your ticket, but, for now, I’d definitely watch and see how this virus will move from here. And, sorry, we’re talking, what, a $200-300 discount? Big deal. Any Westerner can save that by bringing his lunch to work for work, instead of eating out…
Maciano
January 29, 2020 at 2:41 AM
I hear Wuhan is offering great air/hotel deals right now.
Roli
January 28, 2020 at 4:29 PM
But are there workers in the hotels at this time? I thought the airport is shut down.
telling it like it is
January 29, 2020 at 3:25 PM
And the food there is to die for!
ack-acking
January 29, 2020 at 8:24 PM
Wuhan hookers are having a ‘blowout’ sale.
FredFarkle
January 31, 2020 at 6:31 AM
Never flown Chinese airlines ever. I prefer paying a little bit more to fly ME airlines (Qatar/Emirates/Etihad). Way better than Chinese carriers. I also don’t consider Cathay (Hong Kong) or Eva Air (Taiwan) as Chinese btw, they are pretty damn good.
mpt
January 28, 2020 at 7:34 PM
Don’t drop any lightbulbs at Home Depot, Peter. They’re all made in China!
Alonzo Portfolio
January 28, 2020 at 10:29 PM
I left there at the end of October. Now I work at an Extremely Large Online Retailer’s fulfillment center located on NYC’s prole borough. Three 12-hour night shifts a week, and despite a 75-mile trip each way and the (obscene) tolls on the Verrazano I’m making *way* more $$$.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 28, 2020 at 11:33 PM
I’ve flown China Eastern and China Southern before. Neither has as nice flight attendants as you get on JAL or Korean Air but otherwise perfectly fine. Chinese who can afford trips to America are usually decent enough fellow passengers too. Again, obviously not as nice as Koreans or Japanese but good enough. It is when you transfer in a Chinese airport like Kumming if you are going on to Thailand or something where you sometimes pick up more of the prole Chinese element. That can be a little unsettling.
FatDrunkAndStupid
January 29, 2020 at 4:45 AM
My BIL and SIL take saving money to a ridiculous extent and she always looks for some weird bargains. They paid $600 for airfare to China back several months ago.
CamelCaseRob
January 29, 2020 at 8:52 AM
I think you’re running out of interesting things to write about as life in America becomes less worthy of a pursuit.
Ok, what, who's this again?
January 29, 2020 at 1:03 PM
O/t – Billy Joel will be singing the blues with his kitschy song, My Life, after his home was burglarized and his motorcycles vandalized where the LIRR hits.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/billy-joels-new-york-house-burglarized-12-motorcycles-vandalized/ar-BBZrQhK?li=BBnbfcL
Ok, what, who's this again?
January 29, 2020 at 2:02 PM
The LIRR isn’t near his house which is in Sag Harbor.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 29, 2020 at 2:52 PM
The LIRR does go somewhere there:
https://www.rome2rio.com/map/New-York/Sag-Harbor#r/Train
Ok, what, who's this again?
January 29, 2020 at 3:50 PM
That shows a bus from Bridgehampton, I never even knew there were buses in the Hamptons.
Lion of the Blogosphere
January 29, 2020 at 4:10 PM
My intuition tells me that the LIRR is the sh!ttest mode of transport doled out by the MTA for price the you paid to ride on it. Riding the subways to the outer boroughs is unpleasant, but it doesn’t cost much. Now, take the LIRR and it gives you a similar experience but at a price.
With the Metro North, the Hudson Line offers you a scenic view of the river and the western front of the Hudson Valley. The Harlem Line runs along the interior of Westchester and Putnam Counties and all you see are trees and shrubs. There have been passenger problems and serious accidents with this line more so than the Hudson one. Then there is the Metro North that runs into Connecticut and a line that runs along the interior of Rockland and Orange counties on the western front of the Hudson Valley coordinated with NJ transit. Both lines suck, because they bus truckloads of commuters to and from the city everyday. Imagine a Saturday evening with the bridge and tunnel proles riding on them. The Hudson Line is also a commuter rail, but it isn’t nearly as full as the other lines.
Ok, what's who's this again?
January 29, 2020 at 5:27 PM
Some of your readers worry about the return of NYC’s heyday:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/exclusive-graffiti-vandals-strike-again-hit-e-train-in-lower-manhattan/ar-BBZrTx7?ocid=hplocalnews
Ok, what, who's this again?
January 29, 2020 at 5:36 PM
The LIRR abandoned its Sag Harbor line just before World War II. For the last couple decades of its existence it was reduced to an infrequent shuttle to the Montauk line in Bridgehampton.
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 29, 2020 at 6:44 PM
Middletown in Orange County, NY seems like a place you might want to visit and snap some pics. Eastern Asia is closer than you think.
It’s not far from Newburgh and there’s a fortified Chinese supermarket, most likely to prevent crime like burglary from the nearby proles and NAMs. This “city” is supposedly a dump like many economically depressed river towns on the western front of the Hudson Valley, despite the nice image below of its downtown area.
Ok, what, who's this again?
January 29, 2020 at 8:58 PM
The Trump Presidency is demonstrating my personal theory – we are all at the mercy of larger technological and societal trends. Trump has completely failed to stop the feminization and ethnic fracturing of our society. The left has completely failed to make any progress stopping global warming or curb the power of the 1%. The actual experience of life for most people under Obama or Trump isn’t really much different, just symbols. The economic and social trends continue to march in more or less the same direction. This is probably why most people no longer vote.
Future historians, if there are any, will see both Trump and Obama as fairly hollow figures who inspired fanatical temporary feelings in their followers, much like a sports team or pop music act, but didn’t accomplish much structural change.
Peter Akuleyev
January 30, 2020 at 1:57 AM
China may have the second largest economy but as far as places I’d like to visit, it doesn’t even crack my top twenty picks in Asia, never mind a global ranking. Hong Kong however is a different matter, I’ve been there several times and always loved it.
Roli
January 29, 2020 at 1:58 PM
I have a friend who loves visiting Asia because it so different from the U.S. He has been to Hong Kong and Macau a few different times and loves them. He has been to Singapore and this year is going to Tokyo (for basically free on frequent flyer miles). He is also interested in Vietnam and would like to go there next year. I asked him about mainland China and he has no desire to visit (and this was before the virus). I found that interesting considering how huge and important China is. So you are the second person I have seen now who travels to Asia but not China.
Jay Fink
January 29, 2020 at 4:31 PM
China is just harder. Shanghai and Hong Kong are easy, but if you want to explore the interior (where most of the true beauty is located) you are going to deal with vast distances, scant English, and all the regulatory burdens attendant with visiting China. Thailand and Vietnam are just so much easier in every way. And if you are looking for authentic Chinese culture you can just go to Taiwan which actually has more of it in an orderly, well run, more traveler friendly country a fraction of the size.
I’m at Seoul Airport right now on my way to Da Nang. Da Nang is usually crawling with Chinese tourists who come in on bus tours but the city made an official announcement “unwelcoming” Chinese Tourists a couple days ago and are supposedly banning tour operators from coming in from China until the outbreak is over. I’ll report if that is actually the case after I get there.
FatDrunkAndStupid
January 30, 2020 at 4:32 AM
I’ve been there several times and always loved it.
… what could you possibly like about it there? (Serious question!) Isn’t it a concrete nightmare to beat all concrete nightmares, the ultimate instance of physical ugliness reflecting spiritual ugliness (viz., the lust for money above all else reflected in the endless urban hellscape)?
S.J., Esquire
January 30, 2020 at 8:50 PM
You need to worry about the trends continuing. If there are around 2000 non-Chinese cases by the end of the next week, then you’ll know all the measures put into place have not done much to stop the exponential spread of this virus. If China’s official numbers hit 100K (plus or minus) within ten days then it’s almost certainly going to affect at least 1M to 2Million with a much larger number over the rest of the year. That makes the foreign spread more serious and also means you are giving the virus a lot more chances to mutate into something deadlier. I also have no confidence in the US ability to quarantine a city like LA if total infected numbers there reach 1000 or more.
ivar
January 29, 2020 at 4:22 PM
They tore the Sag Harbor RR line up a long time ago. Suffolk County transit offers bus service on the South Fork. You can take a bus from Orient to Montauk (the two tale ends) for $2. Kills half a day to make the trip.
kline
January 29, 2020 at 6:10 PM
I feel like a lot of people want to use this to signal how tough and not a scaredy cat they are.
If you have fifty years of life left and the chance of death if infected is .1%, that’s about two and a half weeks lost if you get it. Plus, you have to count the amount of time you’re miserably incapacitated if you get it and survive. So you’re looking at what, five weeks of lost life? The .1% is assuming you’re much less likely to die than average if you’re young and healthy. But this is not always true, wasn’t true in the 1918 pandemic. If it’s 1% then that’s six and a half months of your life, gone.
What’s the conclusion? Whatever non-perishable foodstuffs you already eat, stock up on them.
WorstBest case you’ll consume them gradually anyway. Don’t go to Asia.Alexander Turok
January 29, 2020 at 8:11 PM
I work at home anyway so as long as the virus doesn’t get so bad that it collapses the economy I can ride it out.
Mike Street Station
February 1, 2020 at 10:35 AM
RobertFrank615 explains the Corona Virus:
Peter
ironrailsironweights
January 30, 2020 at 3:11 PM
If you are young and healthy and have 600 bucks and a few weeks of available leisure time definitely go to Asia now.
I would go myself but my government passport expired in 2002 and my own passport expired in 2008 and I have not renewed either one.
If you go to Asia now people will consider you a mensch, and you will have stories to tell for the rest of your life, if you like to brag.
and let’s face it, how many people who read this blog would not brag about something like that?
Howitzer Daniel
February 1, 2020 at 8:42 PM
Unless you bring the virus back. Then you won’t be bragging, you’ll by Typhoid Mary, only one who foolishly put other people at risk for bragging rights.
Mike Street Station
February 2, 2020 at 8:41 AM