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When Wu Bin took 14 boxes of masks and goggles to the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the long queues of people made way for him in front of the check-in counter. Some came over to lend a hand.
Wu bought the medical supplies from Indonesia and wanted to donate them to medical workers on the front lines in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in central China's Hubei Province.
"I was on vacation with my girlfriend in Malaysia, and I wanted to do something to help," he said.
China is feeling the pinch of the coronavirus outbreak, with health authorities Wednesday reporting 3,887 new confirmed cases of infection and 65 deaths on Tuesday. All of the deaths were in Hubei Province, according to China's National Health Commission.
The overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland had reached 24,324 by the end of Tuesday. A total of 490 people had died of the disease.
When Wu arrived in Malaysia's Penang state on Jan. 27, he decided to buy some masks for his colleagues in Guizhou Province in southwest China at first. He visited five drugstores but returned empty-handed.
"Even Malaysia was affected by the coronavirus outbreak," he said. "At that moment I knew that the medical workers in China must be in great need of medical materials."
Soon, Wu found information on social media about people wanting to bring medical materials to China. A Malaysian Chinese, called Edward, said he knew a manufacturer in Medan of Indonesia with a big number of masks, and that he needed help to transport the masks to China.
"I was really excited," Wu said. "I contacted Edward and the manufacturer, while searching for Wuhan hospitals in need of supplies."
He eventually managed to contact the No. 9 Hospital in Wuhan. The hospital hosts a large number of infected patients and is in urgent need of supplies.
On Thursday, Wu and his girlfriend flew to Medan. The manufacturer had already put the 20,000 masks and 200 goggles into 14 boxes.
"The head of the manufacturing company is a Chinese descendant, and when he heard that we were going to donate the masks to Wuhan, he sold them to us at the lowest price, and asked two workers to help transport the materials to the airport," he said.
As flights had already stopped from Indonesia to China, Wu had to transfer via Kuala Lumpur.
"It was really hard to carry the boxes," Wu said. "They were taller than us on the trolley."
The journey was not easy. They had to fly five times and go through customs three times. At one point, they caught the attention of customs staff. Wu explained to them about the purpose of the masks and goggles, and was finally given the green light.
A Chinese merchant offered to deposit the boxes for free when transferring took a long time at the airport in Kuala Lumpur.
On Saturday night, when passengers at the airport heard that the materials were going to Wuhan, the long lines of people let Wu go first.
"I heard people speaking Chinese and I saw their smiling faces," Wu said. "I bowed to them, and I felt a strong sense of patriotism and solidarity."
Wu arrived in Kunming, capital of the southwestern Yunnan Province, the next morning, and immediately sent the materials to Wuhan.
After mailing the materials, Wu wrote on his social media page: "20,000 masks and 200 goggles ... Bless China!"
