“Some Shanghai residents and migrant workers are now allowed to leave the city, relate le South China Morning Post, provided they obtain permission from the committees of their district of residence and present a negative nucleic acid test [au Covid-19] less than forty-eight hours old.” On May 23, the authorities began the gradual easing of the drastic health restrictions that had been imposed on the city of 26 million inhabitants since the end of March.
After these long and trying weeks of confinement, many residents immediately decided to flee the city. This “mass exodus”as it is called New Tang Dynasty (NTD), an American television channel broadcasting in Chinese, gave rise to scenes of chaos in several train stations and airports.
Leaving at all costs
At Shanghai-Hongqiao, one of the city’s main train stations, some residents determined to leave have even decided to stay overnight in the underground car park, in an attempt at all costs to obtain a train ticket despite the high demand.
The English-speaking information site Sixth Tone, based in Shanghai, also relayed images from inside the station where thousands of people were waiting to board on Friday, May 27.
While most of the city’s public transport was still at a standstill at the end of May, departing residents often had no choice but to walk, sometimes for several hours, to the stations and airports. The city of Shanghai, however, announced the gradual reopening of public transport, starting with “four train and bus lines” allowing to connect “all areas downtown”including Hongqiao Railway Station and Pudong Airport, as the Global Times, citing the city’s deputy mayor, Zhang Wei.
Almost all of the city soon to be liberated?
Many residents have continued to crowd into stations in recent days, especially Hongqiao, fearing last-minute changes to instructions that would prevent them from leaving. A widely shared video on social media shows that there was still a huge crowd at Hongqiao Station on May 28.
This Monday, May 30, the Chinese government announced that “up to 96% of the inhabitants” of the city should be able to get out of confinement from Wednesday 1is June and be allowed to enter and leave their accommodation as they please, reports Sixth Tone in another article. Some 890,000 people will, however, be subject to health restrictions. “in areas still considered to be at risk” due to Covid-19 cases.