Wuhan's residents eager to step out of Covid-19's long shadow

Despite the national slowdown, the resilient city has seen strong GDP growth

- Aw Cheng Wei

 

WUHAN On a regular Thursday night in November, Wuhan's Hanjiang Street is bustling with residents and tourists out for a night of good fun, food and buys.

At a square in that street, curious onlookers surround live-streamers broadcasting to their followers the latest updates at one of Wuhan's most happening streets.

Others whip out their phones to capture two Maine Coon cats being taken out for a walk. Night markets selling anything from fries to coats fill out the branches of Hanjiang Street. Delivery riders honk as they try to inch past crowds of people oblivious to their impatience.

Such a sight was unimaginable in the early lockdown months of 2020 after the world's first Covid-19 cases were identified in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China. For 76 days, residents had to stay indoors and businesses were shut. Streets stood empty, save for the occasional taxi or on-demand driver ferrying essential service workers.

The strict lockdown in Wuhan also heralded the spread of the country's harsh measures - replete with mass testing, flash lockdowns and strict quarantines that lasted for about three years till December 2022.

Residents and companies in Wuhan told The Sunday Times that the city is eager to step out of Covid-19's long shadow, but dampened consumer spending has been a drag on business.

"There are a lot of people on the streets, but my business has really not been very good," said on-demand driver Wei Yuanbo, 31, who grew up in Wuhan. He makes between 250 yuan (S$47) and 300 yuan a day-half of what he used to make in 2022.

To make his monthly mortgage payments, he started driving in 2022 to supplement his salary as a full-time strategy consultant at an advertising agency, after taking a 50 per cent pay cut. He had ventured into selling fried chicken in 2021, but the business failed the same year.