I decided to go out today around the evening rush hour to see how quickly life in Beijing is resuming, and saw very mixed signals. There are certainly more cars, bikes, motorbikes and people on the streets than there were last week, so that Beijing traffic is perhaps 25-35%... 
back to normal. Some of the little shops are reopening, and I saw seven people lining up in front of Beijing’s most famous chestnut shop, about a quarter of the usual number but a substantial improvement over the past two weeks. Of course as you can see in the picture they...
...were all practicing the new Beijing cueing etiquette, keeping about one meter between themselves and the person in front.
The picture below might not show it, but the shopping mall at Sanlitun was also busier than it had been last week. There were a lot more people...
The picture below might not show it, but the shopping mall at Sanlitun was also busier than it had been last week. There were a lot more people...
...strolling around, including couples, with more people in the flagship Apple store than I saw last week (perhaps about one-quarter to one-third the usual crowds). More interestingly, and unlike last week, most shops in the mall had at least one or two customers inside. This...
...is nowhere close to normal, of course, but it suggests that people’s confidence has risen substantially (or that they’re too bored to care anymore).
All of this suggests that part of Beijing is slowly returning to normalcy, but what made the signals “mixed” is that I tried...
All of this suggests that part of Beijing is slowly returning to normalcy, but what made the signals “mixed” is that I tried...
...to get a glimpse into every passing bus and still found that they were all nearly empty, even at rush hour. The typical bus still seemed to have no more than 2-3 passengers on average. The subway was a little busier than it had been last week, but still seemed incredibly...
...empty for rush hour. Perhaps some of the workers are taking taxis or Didi to work (Chinese Uber), but I doubt most of them can afford it. The “return to normalcy” still seems fairly lop-sided between car owners and non-owners.
On the way back I bumped into Zhang Peng, a...
On the way back I bumped into Zhang Peng, a...
...very personable 19-year-old migrant worker from Tianjin, who knew me because his classmate is in a local indie band. He told me he had been working very long hours in a restaurant in Beijing since last summer, but no longer has a job and has all but given up finding a new...
...one (although he was still gamely searching when I bumped into him). He told me he will probably go back home next week to live again with his parents, the idea of which seemed to depress him. This has become a common story here among young migrant workers. He was so hard...
...up that when I constructed an excuse later to send him some money by Wechat for food and this month’s rent -- which at first he indignantly refused -- I was nonetheless able eventually to force him to accept it, both of us pretending that it was just a loan which he will...
...repay in a few months when he is back in Beijing.
I am afraid these are the kids who are going to bear the brunt of Covid-19. They had worked so hard to get on the first, precarious step of a very grubby ladder, and now they’ll have to start all over again.
I am afraid these are the kids who are going to bear the brunt of Covid-19. They had worked so hard to get on the first, precarious step of a very grubby ladder, and now they’ll have to start all over again.
