Performers at a Shanghai restaurant this month. City authorities have promoted night markets and a shopping festival to boost the economy.
Photo: Chen Fei/Zuma PressSHANGHAI—Millions of Beijing residents are back under lockdown as the Chinese capital contends with a new cluster of coronavirus cases. Schools are closed and residents can’t leave the city without a recent negative nucleic acid test.
Meanwhile, life in Shanghai, the country’s other great metropolis, has largely returned to normal: Restaurants are full, face masks, though still commonplace, are no longer worn by many, and the coronavirus concerns feel like a distant memory—with a few minor exceptions.
The contrast underscores how thoroughly much of China has bounced back after being engulfed by the coronavirus earlier this year—and how vigilant authorities remain to any possible resurgence.
Experts around the world have warned that ordinary life won’t be the same after the coronavirus, with restaurants, offices and public transportation forever altered by social-distancing concerns. But Shanghai and other cities in China that have recovered and managed to keep the coronavirus at bay suggest that may not be the case.
In Suzhou, a city of about 10 million people 60 miles to the east of Shanghai that is a popular tourist destination, few people walking through the historic city center donned face masks. Temperature checks at restaurants and cafes, once universally enforced across China, were virtually nonexistent.
Shanghai, which reported its most recent locally-transmitted case a month ago, today bears few obvious signs that a coronavirus once raged across the country.
On bustling city streets, many people have now dispensed with face masks altogether. At lunchtime on Thursday, people crowded into their favorite eateries with little thought for the pandemic that’s still raging across many parts of the globe. At one popular restaurant serving Hainan chicken rice, diners sat elbow to elbow.
Shanghai, China’s financial hub and home to more than 24 million people, has always liked to think of itself as being more pragmatic than the capital, some 700 miles to the north. That spirit was evident on a recent day at Starbucks Reserve Roastery in central Shanghai, the world’s largest Starbucks Corp. cafe.
Sam Zhang, a salesman who was meeting a friend for coffee, said some people were going out less frequently than they had before the pandemic, but were still mostly comfortable meeting in public spaces.
“It’s basically safe here,” Mr. Zhang said, “so long as we don’t go to dangerous places like Beijing.”
In response to the Beijing outbreak, which has centered on a food wholesale market, the Shanghai government said Wednesday it was tightening hygiene measures at the city’s markets to ensure a similar relapse isn’t repeated here.
Beijing residents can’t leave the city without a recent negative nucleic acid test after a new coronavirus outbreak.
Photo: thomas suen/ReutersChloe Zhang, who was studying in New York before returning home to Shanghai in April as a precaution, acknowledged that the new Beijing cluster has dented some people’s confidence.
“Over the last two weeks half of the people on the street have not been wearing masks, but now everyone seems to be putting them back on,” said Ms. Zhang, who was having coffee with her mother.
But in general, the Shanghai authorities have hastened the city’s reopening to help boost the economy. Initiatives have included the promotion of night markets and an ongoing shopping festival, during which Shanghai residents have been given coupons encouraging them to go out and visit shops and restaurants.
Entry restrictions at residential compounds were dropped weeks ago as the city lowered its alert status. Schools began a staggered reopening in late April, and most students are now back in class. At many office buildings workers must show a government-issued QR code that verifies their recent travel history in order to gain access, but otherwise most offices are functioning normally.
The city’s museums and art galleries have reopened, though visitors must buy tickets in advance. Shanghai Disneyland opened in May after four months, though only at 30% of its usual capacity. Only movie theaters remain closed, and only on the subway are citizens required to wear face masks.
On Wujiang Road, a busy restaurant strip near the Starbucks roastery, people stood close together in lines as they waited for a seat inside. Queuing outside a packed noodle shop, David Wang, who worked in a nearby office, said Shanghai had earned the right to feel relaxed.
“Shanghai’s situation has been stable for a long time,” Mr. Wang said, for one very good reason. “Shanghai people follow the rules well.”
—Yijun Yin contributed to this article.
Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com
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