Shanghai as we knew it is coming back

People cheer during the wee hours at the Bund in east China's Shanghai, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

"Shall we go to the Bund?"

Precisely at midnight on June 1, upon receiving the invitation from her friends, Ms. Ding promptly started her car, which had by then sat unused for two months and was covered with a layer of dust.

As they turned into the Inner Ring Road, a traffic jam was awaiting them, but they were somehow bursting with glee. "This is the Shanghai as we knew it," said Ding, a teacher who lives on the No. 2 Ruijin Road in Huangpu District.

After a two-month-long citywide "static management," the metropolitan has achieved key progress in its war against COVID-19. With it, Shanghai announced on May 30 that starting Wednesday, June 1, it will begin relaxing the city's curbs on entering or leaving residential compounds, resume public transportation services, and ease rules on private cars on roads.

At half-past midnight, Ding parked her car and unlocked two shared rental bikes. Along the No. 1 Zhongshan Dong Road, they pedaled through Shanghai's Shiliupu, the city's largest ferry port, the Custom House, and Chen Yi Square. Standing at the Bund, they photographed the "three attractions" on the other side of the Huangpu River: the Shanghai Tower, the Jinmao Tower, and the World Financial Center.

All of a sudden, amongst the slow-moving traffic rang a chorus of horns. To the unbroken sound of "beep," some young men couldn't help sticking their heads out from a sunroof, cheering with joy.

Aerial photo taken in the wee hours of June 1, 2022 shows the night view at the Bund in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

The headlights illuminated the entire road ahead, shining like a lamp belt embedded on the river bank. Looking around, there was someone who brought their parents along and also parents with kids behind them.

"Everyone is smiling!" said Ding, in a slightly choked-up voice, "the Bund is the symbol of Shanghai, an agglomeration of our emotions and memories. It is reassuring to have a look at it."

With all of the roadblocks along the Huangpu River and the Suzhou River being dismantled before midnight, the flow of crowds of people and traffic hustled out and into the Bund.

On the landscaped platform, the youngsters posed for pictures with as many gestures as they could think of, against the backdrop of "exotic building clusters," an encapsulation of the city's century-old history as an open port. Within their sights where they were standing, rose the World Financial Center, the symbol of the fruits of China's reforms and opening-up, on the opposite riverbank.

Vehicles drive out of a community in Minhang District, east China's Shanghai, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

At 6:30 AM, the tuneful bell from the Custom House awakened the once "sleeping" city, when a shaft of sunlight dispersed the mist hanging in the air.

For the first time in two months, Ms. Zhang, who lives in the Jiushi Building, Huangpu District, could take a walk outside of her residential community. "The roads (in the Bund) are so clean, and the flowers and grass are so pretty. This is still the Bund I'm familiar with," she said.

Mr. Ye, who lives near the Yu Garden, was on a morning run as he spoke with the People's Daily. "Two months without running, and I find my strength could hardly catch up. But a few days of running will help me adjust," he said, wiping the sweat away while heading home. "After taking a shower and changing my clothes, I will go to the office at Lujiazui at 7:30," he added.

At 7:00 AM, the traffic at the entrance of the river-crossing tunnel on Yan'an Road grew heavier. "I have never seen such a smooth traffic flow in this time period in the Yan'an Road tunnel," said Ms. Xiao, who was driving from Puxi District to an investment firm in Pudong District.

From 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM on June 1, the traffic volume in Shanghai was about 60% of the average during rush hours on weekdays prior to the city's latest COVID-19 outbreak, and the daily peak was recorded at 8:30 AM with around 328 thousand vehicles, according to the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Driving through the Yan'an Road tunnel to cross the Huangpu River, Ms. Xiao arrived at the Lujiazui World Financial Center, a "vertical Financial Street." On arrival at her "long-lost" office, she noticed a hue of green and immediately marveled at it, before capturing a photo and sharing it on her social media page. "The page of the calendar remained on the day of March 29," she wrote, "but the succulent is still flourishing without any water for two months!"

People walk on the Nanjing Road pedestrian street in east China's Shanghai, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

Along the streets, there were still many shops that had yet to re-open, but a chain convenience store managed to start up its business again. Whenever people passed by, the familiar welcoming music would ring out. "It's like the (stations) broadcast sound on the metro, which has been the sound that I've missed the most for the past two months," some customers said.

At 9:00 AM, at Yuqiao Village, Beicai Town, Shanghai's Pudong New Area, the first batch of residents arrived at a gray-and-white cabin specially built for routine nucleic acid testing, which was installed just a day earlier. "Finally, we don't need to work inside a stuffy tent," said Zhou Meijiao, a staff member at the testing site. Wang Huiqing, the Party Branch Secretary of Yuqiao Village, felt a little worried initially about the new testing site when she came by earlier in the morning. "Pretty good to me. All equipment is running smoothly," she said. By noon, some one hundred residents had finished their testing.

Shiji Avenue Station, the interchange station for the four busiest lines of Shanghai's metro system, boasts over 300 thousand daily trips at its peak. Usually, Mr. Tang, an accountant at a foreign firm, would wait for the third train to squeeze onto Metro Line 2. "I secured my seat with ease today, and I'm on my company's list of the first batch of employees who can resume work," he said.

Children play at the Bund area in Shanghai, east China, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

"On June 1, two types of employees at most companies would return to the office," said Dai Tao, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Jiangsu Road Subdistrict, Changning District, who had researched the matter. "The first group consists of executives who need to check up on their companies' business. The second group is composed of employees responsible for a company's basic function, including accountants, engineers, and cleaners, who will pave the way for a larger-scale resumption of work and production in the near future," he explained.

At 10 AM, inside an assembly shop at SAIC Motor's Lingang plant, industrial robots were applying glues on the front windshields and installing them onto automobile bodies with lifting devices. Two workers were absorbed in their task of fine-tuning the positioning, examining the installation, and removing the lifting devices. After the installation was completed, the car bodies would "follow" the assembly line to arrive at new stations for further assembly, before they would finally leave the factory.

Since May 27, SAIC Motor's Lingang plant has taken on the stress test for a double shift scheme, which has posed more challenges for the supply chain and supplies of components and parts. "As the COVID-19 outbreak begins to fade, more and more tier-one and tier-two suppliers are ramping up their production," said Jiang Ning, a senior manager at SAIC Motor's part planning and control department. "With the potential of the ports and the warehouses being unleashed, we are increasingly confident in the resumption of production and reaching our target output," he said.

Shanghai, a city that had remained static for two months, and the Shanghai life as we knew it, is now coming back.

Photo shows the scallion pancakes at a breakfast restaurant in Minhang District of Shanghai, east China, June 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

This story originally appeared in the June 2, 2022, print edition of People's Daily, written by Li Hongbing and Ji Juesu, and translated by Meng Bin.