Shanghai is finally breaking down, after two months of very strict confinement

Shanghai is picking up color. Life has returned to the iconic Bund boulevard. Since Wednesday evening at midnight, the hour of deconfinement has sounded. “I came with my family along the river to celebrate the end of this long confinement“, says a resident. No more barriers that blocked the entrances to residences to prevent people from leaving their homes, dismantled overnight.

At the water’s edge, a group of friends finally get together for a picnic with the children, after more than two months of confinement. For Rita, Shanghainese by birth and heart, this long solitary confinement leaves a bitter taste. This 30-year-old advertiser felt “a prisoner”, on the verge of depression. “It will leave scars in Shanghai. There were times when we were really hungry at first. And once that was fixed, it was a mental health challenge“, she confides.