Beijing has begun relaxing testing requirements after widespread protests. (file)
Beijing:
Eating in underground restaurants, drinking in secret bars and hiding their Covid symptoms – some Beijing residents are flouting strict restrictions as the government temporarily relaxes pandemic control measures.
“It was quite secretive, you couldn’t see the light from outside on the second floor,” said a resident who visited a secret Hotpot restaurant.
She came across the simmering stew stew on Xiaohongshu — China’s equivalent of Instagram — while searching for places to dine indoors in Beijing, saying it was “full” of people.
“I was very happy to eat out, but at the same time I felt like I had to fight an underground battle,” she said on condition of anonymity.
China is facing an inflection point in its virus response, lingering on heavy-handed restrictions that were successful in containing early outbreaks but which have stoked widespread public outrage.
In the wake of the country’s biggest protests in decades, several cities including Beijing have begun relaxing testing requirements as state media downplays the risks of the virus.
That exemption has encouraged some residents to flout the rules, with news of eateries and cafes offering dine-in services – prohibited in most parts of the capital – circulating on social media and garnering hundreds of likes.
A migrant told AFP on condition of anonymity that he recently enjoyed mutton stew and skewers at another underground restaurant.
“The staff wouldn’t let me in and said they were only doing takeout,” he said.
“But when I said friends were already upstairs, he winked and asked me to scan his QR code.”
Another Beijing expatriate told AFP he watched a World Cup match at a shuttered nightclub where screenings are held in secret, where guests are invited only by word of mouth.
After a labyrinthine journey through a neighboring hotel and car park to reach the nightclub, locked from the outside, he found unsuspecting guests carefully watching the game inside.
“How unreal it was to jump through all these hoops,” he said.
And a Beijing food blogger who recently posted about secretly visiting open bars said they were fed up with the situation.
“I really can’t stand it anymore, I hope they reopen as soon as possible,” blogger surnamed Sui told AFP.
Two of the residents also believe that they have had Covid as they have been suffering from fever and cough in the recent past, but they refused to undergo PCR tests, which would result in their being locked down Or worse, will be taken to central quarantine.
Some communities in the downtown of Chaoyang district last week quietly began allowing Covid-positive residents to self-quarantine at home, a major departure from China’s previous Covid playbook.
Without contact tracing through PCR testing or entering public places, “it is better to wait it out and recover at home”, said one migrant, admitting it “felt a bit revolting.”
“I really want to get Covid to end it, having felt so sick the past two days,” one Beijinger told AFP, adding that he planned to stay home and wait out his symptoms. Has been
“I know that Covid positive people can now quarantine at home, I don’t want the government to know whether I have Covid or not.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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