After two months of lockdown, Shanghai still feels a little unreal. It is hard to square the silence with the memory of a city of more than 25 million people. Buses and subways stopped running. Residents settled into a routine of daily antigen tests and nucleic acid tests every other day.
In recent days, the number of new cases has been falling. Some areas designated for prevention now allow people in and out with passes, and news of people leaving Shanghai has become more visible.
At the railway station, queues stretch for kilometers. People carry backpacks and drag suitcases. Some walked for more than ten hours to get there; others rode shared bikes for dozens of kilometers. Many who reach the station still cannot get a ticket, so they keep refreshing the booking app, hoping a seat home will appear.
Those scenes are hard to watch. Most people came to Shanghai hoping for steady work and the conveniences a big city offers.
Many are saying a larger exodus will follow the outbreak. I think there will certainly be people who return to their hometowns or try elsewhere. That has always happened; the pandemic has simply magnified it.
Since the pandemic began, plenty of companies will have gone under or shrunk, and jobs will disappear with them. In crowded service sectors such as restaurants, cinemas, and KTVs, even after restrictions are fully lifted, there may be a period of watching and waiting. Demand for waiters and service staff is bound to fall sharply in the short term.
The city is prosperous and beautiful, but arriving as a resident rather than a tourist changes everything. You are here to live, work, and struggle. For most Shanghai transplants, daily life is not easy. What keeps them going may be a dream.
There are so many gleaming towers, yet a Shanghai transplant often has only a small rented room, usually shared. There is so much good food, yet boxed meals and delivery are the norm.
Newcomers often accept housing that meets only basic needs: a place to shower and sleep. Moving six times in three years is not unheard of. If the pandemic had arrived while living in that kind of housing, without a proper kitchen, the days would have been much harder. Instant noodles and self-heating meals would have been eaten until they became unbearable.
Even if many leave, I suspect that before long people will forget the unseemly parts of the lockdown. A new batch of young people will come to chase their dreams. Shanghai is a beach because one wave recedes and another arrives. The sky will still be blue, the wind on the Bund will still be cool, and life, I believe, will quickly return to normal. The big city is like that: cold and unmoved by anyone, yet fair, with opportunities for all.
Of course, I hope Shanghai will use this experience to take stock and learn. Put pride aside and fix what needs fixing. Bad fortune and good fortune lean on each other. After this outbreak, perhaps Shanghai will become better.
For now, I hope the pandemic ends soon, and everyone can live the life they want.