A reporter has used his camera to capture views of Wuhan, epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. He went to an old neighborhood surrounded by high-rise buildings in Jianghan District as people of different occupations lived here so it’s best to feel the breath of life of the historic city. Lanes and alleys near Yiyuan Road, Eryao Road, Sanyang Road, Wufu Road, and Liuhe Road are the heritage from the concession period. The photo shows a man on an electric motorcycle passing objects to a local resident across the wall set up for quarantine near Yiyuan Road in Wuhan. (Compiled by Han Xiaomeng)

The photo shows a man clinging to the quarantine wall. The reporter was later told that he was a deaf-mute.

Checkpoints are set up around the neighborhoods so that the health conditions of local residents can be closely monitored. The photo shows residents of Haishouli, a residential quarter in Wuhan’s former French concession staring at a nearby checkpoint.

Time seems to stand still in the neighborhoods of Haishouli as these old buildings are a memoir of Wuhan’s history and look unique with high-rise buildings and skyscrapers in the background. The photo shows a resident in Haishouli listening to the Gypsy Songs on his cellphone.

In Haishouli, generations of a big family live under one roof. The photo shows a grandmother looking at a painting of her granddaughter.

Unlike most city dwellers, residents of this neighborhood are close to each other. After days of rain, the sun finally comes out. The photo shows a grandmother knitting a sweater near the gate of the residential quarter with a woman dancing nearby.

The photo shows a cat crawling up the gate of the residential quarter.

As such old neighborhoods gradually disappear amid Wuhan’s urbanization, most residents who live in such neighborhoods are seniors. Young people who grew up here choose to live in new residential quarters after they start to work. The photo shows a man using a QR code to buy vegetables.

A shop owner in the leather business complained that he had been quarantined at the shop for over a month. As a healthy man uninfected by the coronavirus, he wanted to go back to his hometown even at the cost of being isolated for 20 days.

As neighbors of Haishouli got well acquainted with each other, they talked about their daily life across the wall set up for quarantine purposes.

The photo shows a deliveryman riding a motorcycle to deliver food and other commodities to meet the needs of local residents in these neighborhoods.

The photo shows Liu Yu, the photographer of the above photos, at the Zhongfaxincheng campus of Tongji Hospital affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan during his interview. He would like to keep the photos as a souvenir of the city during the epidemic days.