WHEN Beijinger Rex Yang arrived in Seychelles in late January, he did not expect that a planned two-week family holiday would stretch to three months, with no end in sight. Little did he know, he would also become an accidental ambassador for the country’s tourism industry.

The Yang family is still stranded on the island of La Digue, the third-largest in the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean off East Africa.

The family’s stay was originally extended because Yang’s mother was unwell, and then further prolonged because Seychelles’ international airport was shut down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the virus crisis took hold, the 33-year-old, his mother, sister and nephew enjoyed La Digue’s balmy weather, lush forest and pristine beaches.

“We woke at 7:30 a.m. We cooked and ate breakfast,” Yang told South China Morning Post.

“Afterwards, the whole family would spend two hours at the beach, feeding Aldabra giant tortoises and enjoying the waves. After a siesta, we would hit the beach again and enjoy the beautiful sunset over the Indian Ocean.”

Then, on March 14, the first COVID-19 case was reported in Seychelles. To stem the outbreak, the government quickly put social distancing measures in place, closed schools and shops selling non-essential goods and banned foreigners from entering and leaving the country.

Beaches have been closed since the beginning of April, which has been frustrating for the Yangs, but they have made the most of their confinement in a two-story, 200-square-meter holiday home with a lawn and sand patch.

“We go to the supermarket once a week to do grocery shopping,” Yang says. “We play tennis and volleyball in our courtyard. My mom watches lots of Chinese soap operas. I knuckle down learning French, one of the official languages in Seychelles. My French is good enough for daily conversation now.”

To maintain an optimistic outlook and fend off the blues of being marooned, Yang keeps a daily diary. He records his experiences and thoughts and posts them on social media to allay the concern of friends and family back home.

On April 25, he began to share his experiences on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, and on the popular short video app Douyin. To his surprise, he had an overwhelming response. Chinese Internet users were impressed by his boundless optimism and bubbly determination.

His Weibo posts have been viewed more than 100 million times.

By posting spectacular pictures of the pristine island of La Digue, with its turquoise waters and vibrant wildlife, Yang has inadvertently become an evangelist for tourism to Seychelles from China.

The nation is largely off the radar of Chinese travelers, and it attracts mostly European visitors.

The sudden interest from the Chinese mainland in the remote country has so intrigued locals that Seychelles’ national broadcaster SBC and two local newspapers have interviewed Yang. He says the local journalists were shocked by the volume of traffic his posts have generated in China.

“The Seychelles’ population is fewer than 100,000 people,” Yang says. “There are only 2,000 locals on La Digue. During the pandemic, Seychelles’ tourism has been dealt a severe blow. Seychelles people hope to attract more Chinese people to their country after the virus outbreak.”

Unbeknownst to him, Yang’s time in Seychelles would be the final stopover in a journey around the world.

In 2018, fed up with his long working hours in an IT job in Beijing, Yang quit to go globetrotting. He visited India, Africa, South America and North America, where he took odd jobs and lived on a shoestring.

“I covered most of the countries in the Americas,” he says. “I brought my family along for the Seychelles trip because I wanted to spend time with them during the Spring Festival. I will put my globetrotting plans on hold now. I plan to go back to Beijing and stay there for 2020.”

The kindness, generosity and stoicism of residents in the face of the pandemic has impressed Yang. Before the country went into lockdown, locals went with them on fishing trips and forest walks.

“The locals here did not show any discrimination against Chinese,” Yang says. “My landlord gave me free vegetables, fruit, eggs, chicken meat, and so on. There’s no panic buying at all at the supermarkets.”

Yang is also grateful to officials at the Chinese Embassy in Seychelles, who have gone out of their way to help the stranded family.

“The embassy gave us masks,” he says. “They call us two or three times a week to see how we are and give us information about flights, local pandemic measures and rules. They even send us Chinese food and condiments to satisfy our yearning for home food. ”

The timing of the family’s departure for China is a cause for concern. Yang’s mother’s diabetes drugs have now run out and the cost of the long stay on the island has exceeded their budget.

“The landlord is very kind,” Yang says. “The monthly rental for our house should be US$12,000, but he charges us only US$2,100. Split between my sister and me, our living costs, including the monthly rental, are US$2,800 on the island.”

While looking forward to going home, Yang says the experience of being trapped on a remote island is a blessing in disguise. (SD-Agencies)