Scott Windass, a 27-year-old man from the port city of Hull in northeast England, has been teaching English in Daqing, northern China, for about three years.

He said he felt much safer in China than in the UK because of the policies and measures in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but also said he was shunned from stores in the beginning because of being "a foreigner," the BBC reported.

His father said his son had done the right thing choosing to stay in China during the virus outbreak.

"It was kind of awful but I was thankful that I was here," said Scott.

Scott said that during first month-and-a-half he was surviving on "mostly fruit, eggs and water" and had to rely on his Chinese friends to get necessities for him during the city's lockdown, which started in February and lasted almost three months.

He said in the beginning some shopkeepers treated him as a foreigner and he "didn't feel very welcome."

In February, China launched several tracing apps to help people know their health condition and check whether they were at risk of catching coronavirus.

Scott said despite the app showing "I'm healthy," some shops still turned him away.

His father added that it was totally understandable that Chinese people reacted in this way, because he could understand anxiety levels rising with many people becoming ill and dying.

"It's a worry and a concern," he said. "China gets a bad press, just in terms of this Western perception of the Chinese state and it's totalitarian nature. So there's all of those worries really and they're all natural to a parent."

Living alone in an apartment in the northern Chinese city , Scott said he felt lonely during the lockdown and he "didn't expect (it) would last as long as it did" in the beginning. But he had tried to make himself busy with "reading lots of books" and keeping in touch with friends and family.

He said he had initially planned to return home but finally gave it up as "we were told it was getting better" with almost all people in China "following every rule."

"Also, if I was to go back home it would be a question of when could I come back here to work because there's still no foreign entry into China at the minute."

"Right now I feel comfortable and happy here. I like my job. I have some good friends here and I enjoy it. It's very relaxed." he said.

"As difficult as it is being thousands of miles away from your son, I think he probably did the right thing," his father added.

(With input from agencies)

(Cover image: People visit the Great Wall to celebrate the New Year in Beijing, the capital of China, January 1, 2020. /Xinhua)