HAIKOU, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- In an effort to boost morale, a special gift of 280 chicken sandwiches and Korean bibimbap was given to students stuck in a Chinese university due to the coronavirus outbreak by the Korean American restaurateur David Chon.

Chon runs a restaurant in Haikou on China's tourist island Hainan. He had been preparing the celebration of the restaurant's first anniversary when the epidemic struck. Chon did not close his restaurant like many others, as "it was priceless to deliver delicious food to people who are stuck home due to the epidemic."

Among the millions of Chinese who followed the official instructions to stay indoors to reduce infection risks, a group of students caught Chon's attention. They had stayed at Hainan University during the winter vacation either for internship or thesis writing and were told to stay on the campus after the outbreak.

"Some of the students stuck in their dormitories are our customers. I noticed that once a week a group take-out order would come in from them," the restaurateur said. "After learning about their desire for food from outside, I thought why not send them free food to celebrate our anniversary."

Last Friday, after three days of preparing the sauce and finding sufficient packing materials, Chon and eight employees of the restaurant finished the project and delivered the food to the 280 students. Chon said they chose an Asian rice dish and a sandwich as there are both Chinese and international students.

"This is my way of celebrating," Chon said. "I want them to at least for a minute or two smile and be happy."

Having lived in Haikou for three years, Chon regards the city as his home. "I'm not a visitor. I'm living here, and this is my home. So I want to do something for my hometown."

Hoping to do his part in the anti-virus fight, Chon also recruited volunteers to hand out 6,000 free masks to locals during the Spring Festival and even dropped a plan to return to New York for his mother's birthday. "She also told me not to go back. 'It looks like you have a lot of work to do in China,' she told me."

"A lot of foreigners are living in Hainan, and they are not necessarily leaving China because of the epidemic. I think they're staying here because it is their home, and they're waiting to start working again," he said.

Hainan reported its first coronavirus cases on Jan. 22 and has so far registered 168 confirmed cases. The province, however, has announced to lower its emergency response after reporting few confirmed cases in the past week.

Chon was relieved to see after a sharp increase in the number of infection cases, the figure leveled out and remained at a manageable level after measures were swiftly put in place to restrict the flow of people. "I think the Chinese government has done a fantastic job in containing the spread," he said.