Shanghai authorities on Tuesday began dismantling fences around housing compounds and ripping police tape off public squares and buildings before the lifting of a two-month lockdown that traumatised residents.
Some Shanghai residents welcomed the end of a tough two-month lockdown at midnight by heading out onto the streets as authorities began to ease the toughest COVID-19 related restrictions in China’s largest city.
Small groups gathered in the city’s former French Concession neighbourhood whistled, shouted “ban lifted”, and clinked glasses of champagne as the draconian rules came to an end.
Dancing retirees, a common evening sight in Chinese cities, came out onto open-air plazas and along the Huangpu River for the first time in weeks under the watchful eye of police, deployed to discourage large crowds from forming.
Yin Xin, a spokesperson for the municipal government, said the city was embracing a “new start”, according to the state-run Global Times, and that its daily briefing on the coronavirus would no longer take place.
The ruthlessly-enforced lockdown fuelled anger and upset in the city of 25 million people and left many struggling to get food or find emergency healthcare. It also hampered manufacturing and other industries, disrupting supply chains at home and around the world.
It was a very difficult time,” Dan Wang, the chief economist at Hang Seng Bank in the city, newsmen. She said she spent 70 days in lockdown.
“A lot of unexpected things happened and a lot of people’s confidence was shaken, and also about the future of China. I think it was probably the largest challenge China has faced in the past decade.”
As of Wednesday, residents will no longer need special passes to leave their compounds and public transport – both buses and the metro system will resume operation. Rail connections with the rest of China will remain limited.
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