China | Speakeasies v snitches

Getting around covid controls in Shanghai

Dark restaurants and shuttered gyms are not necessarily closed

|SHANGHAI

For two glorious weeks at the beginning of June the residents of central Shanghai could sit in a café, sip a latte and forget about the chaos of April and May. The city’s harsh and shambolic lockdown, aimed at stemming an outbreak of covid-19, was finally over. People were able to move about again. The coffee had never tasted so good.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Speakeasies v snitches”

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From the July 2nd 2022 edition

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