Shanghai residents expressed complicated feelings, stores preparing for reopening after 2-month COVID lockdown

Record ID: 1675205

  • Title: Shanghai residents expressed complicated feelings, stores preparing for reopening after 2-month COVID lockdown
  • Date: 31st May 2022
  • Summary: SHANGHAI, CHINA (JUNE 1, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERING AND CELEBRATING IN URBAN GREEN SPACE (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) SHANGHAI RESIDENT SURNAMED DONG, SAYING: "A few days earlier when I was in front of big billboard ball in Xujiahui, I saw that the board was constantly changing. There were slogans saying lockdown will be end soon, advertisements, and photos of medical staff and pandemic control volunteers. There were five people standing on the bridge taking photos of the billboard and they were migrant workers in Shanghai. They were video calling their families. At that moment, I had mixed feelings. It was complicated." PEOPLE GATHERING AT CROSSROAD, SHOUTING AND WHISTLING 'BAN LIFTED' PEOPLE STANDING ON ROAD WOMAN SKATING, MAN WALKING DOG EXTERIOR OF DIM SUM STORE VARIOUS OF STAFF PREPARING DIM SUM IN STORE (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) SHANGHAI RESIDENT, 28-YEAR-OLD WANG HAO, SAYING: "A bit of social anxiety. I feel I have not seen people on the street for a long time. People outside my community compound." MAN SHOUTING: "Freedom!" "Freedom? I am excited but also a bit confused because I am worried that I cannot get used to this." VARIOUS OF MAN DANCING ON STREET MAN HOLDING CAMERA FILMING DANCE MAN DANCING (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) SHANGHAI RESIDENT SURNAMED PAN, SAYING: "I am looking forward. Some people are still staying at home maybe because it is late. There're not many like me who came out specifically. People out here are still very few. In normal times there should be a lot of people." PEOPLE RIDING SCOOTERS ON STREET TRAFFIC AT CROSSROAD CARS AND BIKES ON STREET
  • Embargoed: 14th June 2022 20:56
  • Keywords: COVID-19 China Shanghai lift lockdown midnight pandemic
  • Location: SHANGHAI, CHINA
  • City: SHANGHAI, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA001172631052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Following two months of frustration, despair and economic loss, Shanghai's draconian COVID-19 lockdown ended at midnight Wednesday morning(June 1) .
    At midnight, small groups gathered in the city's former French Concession neighbourhood whistled, shouted "ban lifted" and clinked glasses of champagne.
    Stores along the street have been preparing for reopening. Staff were seen disinfecting and organising inventories at midnight in a dim sum store.
    The 2-month lockdown has trapped many migrant workers in Shanghai, who were not able to return their hometowns or secure their income sources in Shanghai.
    A resident surnamed Dong said when she saw five migrant workers taking photos of the huge billboard showing slogans of fighting pandemic while video calling their families in Xujiahui, one of Shanghai's most bustling commercial districts, she had mixed feelings. "It was really complicated," she said when holding a bottle of beer, celebrating with her friend whom she has not met for two months.
    Most of Shanghai's 25 million residents can now freely leave home, return to work, use public transport, and drive their cars - a moment that for many in China's largest and most cosmopolitan city felt like it would never arrive.
    "I have not seen people on the street for a long time," 28-year-old Wang Hao told Reuters, when a man shouted "Freedom!" in the background, "I am worried that I'm not used to this."
    (Production: Xihao Jiang, Brenda Goh, Xiaoyu Yin)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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