Li Wenliang told his colleagues about it in December. That would mean it was active in China at least as early as November.

My neighbor is a family doc, he said before this started to become big news he would have just diagnosed it as the flu and not thought anything of it. This is of course with the moderate (average) case of CV.

In mid-January, I had the coughing fit from hell. Lasted for a few days, but had none of other symptoms that're now associated with COVID-19. I went to the local UrgentCare and tested negative for the Flu. That's all they could do at the time.

I had it since the end of March. I never had breathing issues. I did have the other symptoms. Fever broke mid-April, started to feel better and eating more. fast forward today and it's barely hanging on. I'll be fine for a week then I'll feel tired with a cough for a couple of days.
I wasn't close to being sick as the ones hospitalized.

I had the worst cough of my life in Jan/Feb, lingered for a month. This was during a project where myself and members of my team we’re spending weeks in the DC area and transiting back and forth every few weeks. Also the same timeframe where my kids missed a week of school with exactly the symptoms of this thing.