While most industries have been affected by the atypical pneumonia outbreak to some extent, some sectors responded quickly to work around the situation. Some of them are playing an indispensable role in the fight against SARS and they are managing to make a buck or two along the way.

Medicine business

Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital has produced and sold hundreds of thousands of packages of preventive soup and has a waiting list with 100,000 orders on it. As the only authorized traditional Chinese medicine producer in Shenzhen, the hospital provides the preventive soup to hospitals, government organs and numerous working units that place orders with it.

"Our pharmacists are working very hard to speed up production. They work from 6 a.m. to midnight on two shifts," said Mr. Wu, an official with the hospital.

Priced at four yuan per package, the soup is extremely welcome. "We have published the ingredients on our Web site so people can make the soup themselves," said Wu.

The Accord Pharmacy, one of the main pharmacies in Shenzhen, reported a sharp increase in the sale of anti-virus medicine, antiphlogistic medicine and nutritional suppliments.

"The sales have definitely increased many times," said Miss Li, spokeswoman of Accord Pharmacy. "Things like masks are in great demand. Sometimes we cannot obtain the masks, even with cash in hand," said Li, adding that many pharmaceutical factories are actively producing medicines to meet the demands. " Now they mainly supply North China."

Hygienic products

Due to the fact that some people wash their hands 10 times a day and clean their houses much more often, a manager at Wal-Mart disclosed that the sale of liquid hand soap has increased tenfold.

The sale of disinfectants, tissues and tea has also increased, according to the manager.

Books on SARS

In Pokart Huaqiang Store, two books related to the prevention of SARS and lung care appeared on the shelves. "They sell quite well," said a manager at the store. On April 14, Guangdong Provincial Educational Publishing House published the first book on SARS in the province. Entitled Guidelines to Preventing Atypical Pneumonia, the book is priced at five yuan. About 10,000 copies have been distributed free of charge to the citizens. "We mainly seek to inform rather than make money," said Ms. Luo with the publishing house.

The publishing house plans to publish two more books on fighting against SARS. One, A Nurse's Diary, is about a nurse who treats atypical pneumonia patients. And the other, Treatment of Atypical Pneumonia, was written by Zhong Nanshan, the director of Guangdong Provincial Respiratory Illness Institute.

The three books complete a series, helping readers understand SARS. So far there are about eight books on SARS nationwide.

Private cars

As the prices of cars keep decreasing, people wait patiently for the bottom line. When atypical pneumonia broke out, those who were hesitant about buying a car swiftly decided that private transportation lessened the chance of catching SARS. As a result, car sales increased dramatically.

Wang Jun, an IT engineer, bought a Cherry car with 110,000 yuan to avoid public transportation. "Buying a car is like getting married. You need a little push to make the final decision. And SARS was the push for me to buy the car," said Wang.

Cai Aiping bought a bicycle so she could avoid taking buses. Earning just over 2,700 yuan a month, she obviously could not afford a car now. "My home is two stops from where I work. I can breathe the fresh air riding the bicycle," she said.

Internet surfing

In atypical days, people cancel many activities and rely more on the Internet. "We surf on the Internet for the latest developments of SARS and to entertain ourselves. It's much safer than going out, " said Miss Shi. Now she and her friends communicate more in chat rooms instead of meeting face to face.

A manager at Great Wall Broadband confirmed that many people had been making the same choice as Miss Shi. There was a marked increase in the number of people getting online.

Quite a few companies expressed that they are prepared to make employees work at home should someone become infected. "It seems things in Shenzhen are getting better. But if the worst happens, we are ready to work at home. In that case, we will depend more on the Internet and its security, " said Coco Zhang, an employee of Maersk, a Shenzhen-based Denmark Logistics company.

Gyms

Most gyms in Shenzhen are receiving an ever-increasing number of people who are looking to improve their health, which is no doubt as a result of the recent SARS outbreak.

Previously, gyms always shortened their working hours during the May Day and National Day holidays.

This year, however, most gyms say they are planning to remain open to take advantage of the fitness-craze which has struck Shenzhen.

Major gyms suffered a slow period one month ago, when most people were avoiding public places, due to the strong fear of SARS.

But recently, more people are choosing to join gyms. No doubt because the outbreak of SARS has made them aware of the importance of physical health, the paper said.

The fact that a large number of Shenzheners had to cancel travel plans due to the cancelation of the weeklong May Day holiday seems to be why the gyms are getting busier, insiders pointed out.

Editor: Wings