beginning of a return to normal in Shanghai after a very difficult confinement

The people of Shanghai have been waiting for this day for a long time. After two months of confinement, the return to normal life has been underway since Wednesday morning. Work has resumed in some companies and most areas of China’s economic capital are now liberated.

After two months locked in her apartment, it’s deliverance for this employee. No need for a pass to leave your home. She took her car that Wednesday morning and arrived at her office a little after 9 o’clock. The Shanghainese explains that she had prepared for this very special day: “Today, I really made myself beautiful! Because for a long time, with the confinement, I no longer put on make-up and I didn’t dress well.”

First steps outside also for Mr. Zhang on the main boulevards of Puxi, the old town of Shanghai, which found the noise of cars, pollution from exhaust pipes and even traffic jams. “In front of the main entrance to our residence, it’s the boulevard, I see buses, people take scooters, people drive. The line of cars in front of the traffic lights is several meters long. The metro is not crowded, but there are no empty seats”, he is satisfied. Buses and subways are now operating normally. Most businesses have reopened with capacity limited to 75% and more than 2.5 million and a half million businesses, small and large, have resumed their activity.

Criticized for this long confinement, the authorities welcome this development. “It’s a day we’ve been dreaming of for a very long time. Everyone made big sacrifices. This day has been hard earned, and we must cherish it and protect it. We must welcome back the Shanghai that we know well and that we missed“, said Yin Xin, spokesperson for the Shanghai government. If the authorities recall the need to continue to protect the city, it is because there are still cases of Covid in the city. 31 have been recorded Tuesday.A small part of the city, 200,000 inhabitants out of 26 million, remains confined.