Even though Shanghai never had a lockdown, people have decided to stay at home and skip work on their own. On June 1st, Shanghai people decided it was time to go back to work.
But the Shanghai restaurant association has guidelines about COVID for all restaurants since the current epidemic situation in the city is still in flux: since June 10th, apart from a few district in Shanghai, all eat-in are forbidden. Restaurants can only sell delivery food.
These days on social media, this photo is very popular:
People say this was taken the moment law enforcement showed up outside the restaurant. Despite light inside being turned off, people still felt the stress.
On Twitter, this video showed you how restaurants serve their customers: by providing some makeshift “tables” across the street.
Others just sat on the steps in front of the restaurant:
Some people told a story of customers of a coffee shop: they were sitting on the edge of a retaining wall of flower patch that is owned by the shop. They were not allowed to eat and drink while sitting on the property of the shop. But they can stand on the road (public property) and drink and eat. So people stood up to drink their coffee, and then sat back down to chat with their friends.
Many stories about people who went to eat in a restaurant had to use coded language to get in. They whispered to the waiters, and the waiters whispered back. Sometimes from the ground floor, the restaurant looked empty, but on the second floor, it was full of customers.
Soon, new stories about people who came to check out the restaurants to report to authorities surfaced.
It is like a never ending bad spy movie.
A Japanese film maker Ryo Takeuchi took to Weibo to tell his recent story at Nanjing airport on June 24th.
He said he was in Nanjing Airport and super hungry (he skipped lunch and dinner). He saw a convenience store, but the shop employee would not let him in unless he has a “location code”. But to get a location code, you need Chinese ID. He is a Japanese and could not get a location code.
“Sorry, this is the rule.”
So, Mr. Takeuchi went to find a restaurant.
“Sorry, we need to see your location code.”
“How about my health code and my travel code (which showed where he had been to).”
“Sorry, this is the rule.”
The Japanese was quite angry in his Weibo post. What about children and old people who have no phone, he asked.
He said later he heard that he can get into those places with his passport. But it seemed that people who worked at the airport did not know.
Hao Lei is a well known actress in China. A screenshot of her Wechat moment got attention on Twitter.
She said:
I was eating at the Dai Pai Dong downstairs, and I have seen three groups of people.
Two fat men came with plastic bags and took the left over food from my neighbouring table.
An old lady came collected all the drink bottles left on the table.
A man in his 60s with a backpack walked up and down the street a few times. He poured the water left in the neighbouring table into his own cup and then sat down at a table far away. He had an empty plastic bowl in front of him. What is he waiting for? His eyes are like his empty bowl, full of disappointment.
I have lived here for more than a decade, and have eaten here countless times. I have never seen such destitute. This is Beijing. If at this prosperous part of the capital, people are struggling by, what about those small place? How do people get by?
In our newsletters 38, 42, 44, 45, and 47, we told the story of a woman in chain, discovered by social media, that sparked a national outrage over criminal trafficking of women in China, with tactic aid of the authorities.
Newsletter 45 was about two courageous young women who decided to visit the chained woman on their own. They were both arrested by local police and forced to disappear from public eyes, for a while.
Until one of them, Wuyi, decided to tell the public what happened to her in the police custody.
Then Wuyi disappeared again. On March 3rd, she was taken away by the police, according to her family and social media. People said that she was planning to go to Yunnan to see the uncle of Xiao Huamei (name of the chained woman by the government that most people refused to believe). She bought the plane ticket and then the police came. No one has seen her since, not even her lawyer.
Today on Twitter, someone posted on Wechat that he heard that Wuyi got 8 month prison term. It can not be confirmed.