Shanghai Reopening Diary: City to Restart Some Schools From June

After almost two months of total lockdown, Shanghai is gradually reopening. On this page, Sixth Tone will bring you regular updates on the city as we're seeing it.

May 26, 2022

Shanghai is set to resume in-person classes for most high school students on June 6 after more than two months of virtual lessons due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the city’s education authority said Thursday. Similarly, those in their final year of middle school are allowed to go back to school on June 13.

The city’s lockdown has disrupted class schedules for high school seniors preparing for the grueling college entrance exams, or gaokao. Those studying for the high school enrollment exams, or zhongkao, have also been affected.

Shanghai postponed both the gaokao and zhongkao by a month in early May amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak. The exams will be held in July this year.

Though students can return for in-person classes early next month, authorities also emphasized they wouldn’t be mandatory for now. Students and their families can continue opting for online classes.

— Ni Dandan; editor: Bibek Bhandari.

May 25, 2022

View From a Pudong Mall

It was drizzling Tuesday afternoon, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of some Pudong New Area residents from venturing to the mall. After all, they’ve been locked in for weeks.

The upscale Taikoo Li Qiantan is the first such venue to reopen in the city’s financial district after nearly two months of lockdown. It opened its doors for visitors Friday.

This week, many residential compounds in Pudong have been gradually relaxing restrictions and allowing people to step outside for a limited time — though days and duration vary from one community to another. They can walk, bike, or use their moped — not their cars though.

A few supermarkets and convenience stores are open, along with the Taikoo Li Qiantan mall.

At Taikoo Li, the three entries into the shopping mall were not as busy as expected. Before entering, visitors scanned their health QR code and had their body temperature taken. They were then given a sticker, indicating they were good to go.

“It’s not busy on weekdays,” said a security guard. “But we received many visitors last weekend. Around 40 businesses in the mall have resumed operations —most of them are coffee shops, restaurants, and a few designer stores.”

Most visitors walked around the mall and its outdoors space, taking photos and filming their first trip to a mall in weeks. Children in raincoats and boots splashed the rainwater in the puddles.

Inside, most shops kept visitors a few meters away from their entrance. The shops also had QR codes for people to scan and place their orders online.

A few people waited outside a designer store that was only allowing two to three customers each time. Some were waiting for their takeouts, as the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted in the air.

“All of our pizzas are sold out,” said Hao Jie, a member of staff at a restaurant serving Western food, adding they ran out of stock in just three hours after opening on Tuesday.

A receptionist at a restaurant serving cuisine from the southwestern Guizhou province said they were experiencing a staff shortage in the face of an increased demand for food. They were also having difficulties sourcing necessary ingredients for certain dishes.

“But the reopening is a good start,” said the woman.

The mall has banned indoor dining but there is an outdoor space that allows visitors to eat or drink. A handful of people lingered there despite the drizzle, and all had their masks on.

While many had come to the mall for the first time since it shut in late March, some hadn’t left at all.

A sanitation worker named Wang Xiafeng, along with some 30 others, have spent the entire lockdown inside Taikoo Li Qiantan. They lived in a designated area on the second floor and carried out their daily tasks despite there not being any visitors.

“I chose to stay because I want to be fully paid,” she said. “For people like me, who are far away from home, the main purpose of life is to make money. Luckily, my income hasn’t been impacted.”

— Ni Dandan; editor: Bibek Bhandari.

May 24, 2022

A Day Out in One District

People chatting across a fence on a sunny day. A line at the grocery store. A strawberry ice cream handed to you at a convenience store door. It may sound normal elsewhere, but this last weekend in Shanghai, they felt like little miracles.

After a few false starts, the reopening of Shanghai has begun, one downtown district at a time. Many residents of Changning, a district just northwest of the city center, spent the weekend outside for the first time in just over 50 days.

This wasn’t the first time people have been allowed out, but it’s the largest scale move toward opening since the start of the lockdown. Across the district, communities allowed designated stores to open to locals, and issued exit passes allowing residents to go out. A few subway lines are even running, taking a few passengers to airports and train stations.

It came as a surprise to us. Shanghai has laid out a rough reopening timeline for the end of June, but details are scarce, and the great majority of the city is still locked down.

I got my pass Friday, and at first I wasn’t sure what I could do with it: it says on the back that each household is to send only one person to the shops every other day, for no more than three hours, and asks you to write what time you leave so they can check.

The truth was a lot more accomodating. The next day, our “building monitor” handed us another pass and encouraged us to use them to take a walk — and we quickly found that we weren’t alone.

There are checkpoints — I think they’re at the boundaries of the district — at which police ask to see the passes. And stores seem to take the restrictions seriously, turning away people without a local pass. And at least one subdistrict in Changning changed its mind Monday, telling residents their passes had been suspended.

On our first walk, people seemed dazed. Last time we were out, the trees were bare; now it’s the humid start of summer.

Many wandered in the middle of the streets, or stood taking pictures of once-ordinary scenes. Two women sat in a bus shelter, chatting as though it were a cafe table. Some streets were covered in the remains of months of delivery, with mountains of cardboard and styrofoam boxes cascading out of doorways. But by Sunday, the Shanghai spring felt a little more real, and we passed more people out for a promenade or a bike ride.

We seem to have the run of the district for exercise, but we’re only allowed to shop in our own subdistrict, an area of about a square mile. It’s got a few convenience stores and a small grocery store with a prohibitively long line. The official list for my subdistrict includes a supermarket, but it’s not actually letting people in. Several nearby subdistricts even got to visit a Carrefour supermarket chain.

A few restaurants and delis were open for delivery, but wouldn’t serve takeout to customers. You can go on an app and order a delivery driver to pick up some takeout and hand it to you.

So mostly what there is to do is to walk. And people are walking. For now, that’s enough.

— Dave Cohen; editor: Bibek Bhandari.

(Header image: VCG)