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| Bikes, electric bikes, and cars on the roads after Shanghai reopens. Image source. |
Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:
Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak
Lockdown Diaries: Shanghai Lockdown Ends June 1! (May 31)
Lockdown Diaries: I Went Out! (May 29)
Lockdown Diaries: We Are Allowed Out! (a little bit) (May 26)
Lockdown Diaries: Slowly Getting Better (maybe) (May 21)
Lockdown Diaries: June 1 Target for "Back to Normal" (yeah not gonna happen) (May 17)
Lockdown Diaries: Restrictions on Chinese Citizens Leaving China (May 13)
Lockdown Diaries: Taking a Whole Building to Quarantine (May 10)
Lockdown Diaries: More and More People Get to Go Out (a little bit) (May 7)
Lockdown Diaries: Some People Can Go to the Grocery Store (May 3)
Lockdown Diaries: Exciting New Definition of "Society" (May 1)
Lockdown Diaries: This is a Human-Made Disaster (April 26)
Lockdown Diaries: More of the Same (April 22)
Lockdown Diaries: 3 Covid Deaths Reported in Shanghai (April 18)
Lockdown Diaries: Dystopian Madness (April 15)
Lockdown Diaries: Part of Shanghai is Out of Lockdown (April 12)
Lockdown Diaries: I am Okay, Shanghai is Not (April 9)
Lockdown Diaries: Dressing Up, Free Medicine, Free Rice (April 6)
Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid (April 3)
Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government (March 31)
Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown (March 28)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
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Shanghai lockdown is over!
Yes! For the entire city of Shanghai, the lockdown ended at midnight on June 1. Though actually, for our apartment complex, it was May 31, hooray. The only exception is apartment complexes which have been designated as "medium risk" or "high risk" areas due to having had a covid case within the past 14 days- these areas contain about 4% of Shanghai's population.
It feels amazing, seeing people out doing normal things. Videos of an incredible amount of traffic on the highways just after midnight on June 1. People waiting in line to buy milk tea, and delivery guys running through to pick up orders they need to deliver. Taking a taxi. Taking the subway. Seeing a normal amount of traffic on the roads. At night when I go to take out the trash, I can hear the sounds of people and cars on the roads outside our apartment complex- it's incredible. During lockdown, when I took the trash out at night, it was so quiet. Just bird sounds and wind, that was it. So quiet.
I have gone to a bunch of places, these past few days, starting June 1. Some places- like a mall I took my son to- it's a bit more tedious to get in because you have to wait in line and then show your green health code and 72-hour negative covid test result, but besides that, it's great. None of the restaurants are allowing indoor dining yet- you have to get your food to go, and then either take it home or hope you can find a place outside to sit down.
And ALL THE HAIRCUT PLACES have customers all day long.
It feels so weird, because on the one hand, I'm back to my normal life that I know so well, but on the other hand, this isn't how I've been living the past 2 months. We've gotten used to lockdown life. So weird, it's a feeling like reverse culture shock.
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Online shopping
Well now that the shipping companies are allowed to deliver things to Shanghai again, we can all get back to our online shopping. I bought a whole bunch of things on Taobao the other day, and several of them have arrived already. It's great, the shipping services that exist in Shanghai- you can buy whatever you want online, and it will arrive in just a few days. I love it, and we all really missed that during the lockdown.
(During lockdown, we could only get things from group buys- which was basically only essential groceries, and we didn't have many choices. I know some people with babies who outgrew all their clothes and shoes during these 2 months. Some were able to get secondhand clothes from neighbors, at least.)
June 1 was Children's Day, and today (June 3) is Dragonboat Festival (端午节), so yeah, celebrate, buy things, spend money.
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| A dragonboat being paddled by 3 zongzi. Zongzi (粽子) are made of rice wrapped up in leaves and then steamed- it's the traditional food you should eat for Dragonboat Festival. Image text "端午 duān wǔ jié". Image source. |
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Location codes
Yes, every single store, subway station, apartment complex, taxi, etc, now has a "location code" that you are supposed to scan. This is related to the health code program in the Alipay app (or WeChat- there is also a version of the health code app that can be accessed with WeChat).
Honestly I wonder how long that's really going to last. Right now, pretty much everyone seems to be scanning them, but most stores don't have an employee standing at the door enforcing it or anything, so, I give it 1 month before everyone decides it's not worth the trouble and quits doing it.
We'll see. At subway stations they are enforcing it though.
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Links
Sixth Tone
Collage: Seeing Shanghai for the First Time in Months (June 2) Good photos here.
Residents Crowd COVID Testing Sites to Move Across Shanghai Freely (June 2) We are lucky because there's a nucleic acid testing site in our apartment complex, so we haven't had any problems getting the negative test we need in order to enter public places. But yeah I've been hearing about people elsewhere in Shanghai who had to wait in line for hours.
In a Reopened Shanghai, Residents Look for Signs of Normalcy (June 1)
Shanghai Emerges From Lockdown to Familiar Sights and Sounds (June 1)
CNN
Shanghai is finally 'reopening,' but the trauma of lockdown lives on (June 1) Usually I'm not a fan of CNN's articles about China, but this one is worth reading. Yes, we have lost trust in our government.
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Next post: Worried About Another Lockdown
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