Just days before Wuhan ends its 11-week lockdown, Huang Daosheng and his mother finally packed their luggage in the realistic hopes of leaving the city.
With community assistance and travel permits in tandem with an acceptance letter from their hometown, Jiujiang City in neighboring Jiangxi Province, the family set out on Tuesday.
"After running some medical tests, the community arranged a car to send us to the provincial border and helped with the transfer," Huang said.
Although inter-provincial traffic has now been resumed, outbound travel from Wuhan is still under scrutiny but negotiable, said Chen Gang, director with Community Service at Xinhua Street, Jianghan District.
"Given the family's strong will to go back, we reported their test results to local authorities, along with health records and travel details," Chen added.
Apart from these official procedures, Huang had also been waiting for his brother's mortal remains.
His brother died two weeks after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
That diagnosis came during his treatment for leukemia, which was why the family traveled 250 kilometers to a Wuhan hospital six months ago.
During the pandemic, families are not allowed to bid farewell to the deceased, while funeral parlors have been asked to notify them when appropriate.
"When I went there on the first day, I had to wait in line for more than an hour," Huang said.
Provincial authorities don't know how many have been stranded due to the lockdown, but estimate almost three million migrant workers have left central China's Hubei Province.
Many among them are eligible to apply for government's medical and financial aid.
Huang said he will return to his job as one of China's 288 million rural migrant workers, as concerns over the resumption of work and employment rate in small and medium-sized businesses remain.
(Cover: Huang Daosheng loads his luggage before leaving for his hometown. /CGTN)