For people just entering lockdown in North America, Europe, Australia, the UK and elsewhere, after 5-6 weeks of self-quarantine in Beijing we are finally starting to emerge. The buses in Beijing are as empty as ever but traffic – cars, bicycles, foot and motorbikes – are... 
substantially back, perhaps to two-thirds of normal. I went out again during the 5-6 pm rush hour, as I did Monday, and the return towards normalcy was confirmed – again with a few exceptions. The main puzzle to me are the buses, most of which seem to carry no more than 2-3...
...passengers, even during rush hour, although I did see one bus with 10-11 passengers in it. You might think that this is because people are willing to get to work only in ways that don’t involve sharing a closed space with many people, but a lot of people are again taking...
...subways – the two trains I had to take were about 20% of normal traffic, with about 16-20 people in each car – and that makes them far more crowded than the buses. The new etiquette in Beijing subways, by the way, seems to be that if you sit down you must leave an empty...
...seat between you and the next person. As I left the subway there were quite a lot of people on their way in.
The 2-meter fences that prevent people from entering into my hutong are still up, and most of the small shops – clothing, furnishing, shoes, bric-a-brac, etc. – are...
The 2-meter fences that prevent people from entering into my hutong are still up, and most of the small shops – clothing, furnishing, shoes, bric-a-brac, etc. – are...
