China’s workers return to office as cities live with COVID

Mask-wearing Beijing and Shanghai commuters are crowding subway trains, with China’s two biggest cities moving closer to living with COVID-19, as millions have been infected with the virus across the country, Qazet.az reports.

After years of ruthless anti-coronavirus curbs, President Xi Jinping scrapped the country’s zero-COVID policy in the face of protests and a widening outbreak.

But after the initial shock of the policy U-turn, and a few weeks in which people in Beijing and Shanghai stayed indoors, either dealing with the disease or trying to avoid it, there are signs that life is on course to returning closer to normal.

Subway trains in Beijing and Shanghai were packed on Monday, while some major traffic arteries in the two cities jammed with slow-moving cars as residents commuted to work.

An annual Christmas market held at the Bund, a commercial area in Shanghai, was also crowded over the weekend. Crowds thronged the winter festive season at Shanghai Disneyland and Beijing’s Universal Studios on Sunday, queueing up for rides in Christmas-themed outfits.

The number of trips to scenic spots in the southern city of Guangzhou this weekend increased by 132 percent from last weekend, local newspaper The 21st Century Business Herald reported.