How convenient life is in Shanghai

Shanghai has been famous for its life of high efficiency. The 3-time Swiss population live in unprecedented great harmony.

Returning to Shanghai after 3 years and 3 months, I was once again impressed by its high efficiency and even more by its transparancy.

Transparency as in seeing (much) more surveillance cameras installed EVERYWHERE, especially in offices. On WeChat platform all those COVID positive people’s personal info is released and displayed, with their exact address of residence. (Thus, no need to display their names.)

To ensure that everyone can get COVID tested at least every 72 hours – for those travelling outside Shanghai and then returning to Shanghai, it’s every 24 hours for the first 3 consecutive days – testing booths are installed in every corner within a few minutes of walk.

This is how convenient and efficient Shanghai is.

Since no matter where you go and enter, you must scan your health code, which is supposed to be green, you are located all the time. Once there is someone who has been in “close” contact with someone who has been tested positive, you as the first person’s UNKNOWN apartment building mate, or office building mate, or shopping mall mate, or park visitor mate, will be immediately informed to enter a 3-day lockdown. If there is ONE person tested positive in a residential compound, the whole compound with hundreds or even thousands of residents will be put into a 7-day lockdown. Some of them will be taken to a special quarantine centre. (If you don’t comply, a real drama will start…) In each case, your green code automatically turns into red. You are banned everywhere out of your lockdown or quarantine “shelter”.

This is how convenient and efficient Shanghai is.

Enter a park, please scan your health code.

Enter a shop, please scan your health code.

To ensure such efficiency, every human being in Shanghai (actually in whole China) must own a smart phone with either Ali Pay App or WeChat App installed. This certainly boosts the mobile phone business.

To ensure the efficiency of all the PCR tests, one can imagine how much manpower has been put into place and how much profit certain manufacturers can make.

While living in the awe, life goes on. We do what we do every day, as if everything was just NORMAL. Many young people still go out dining, shopping, travelling (mainly within China). I ask them if they are concerned about being given a red code. They answer, “Even if you stay at home doing nothing, you have the same chance of being given a red code.”

It absolutely makes sense!

So, we live in the unprecedented great harmony. We enjoy the diversity of yummy food, the simple and easy experiences of online shopping, the excitement (if not anxiety) of what may happen in the next minute…