It’s official

It's been announced that Shanghai is going into a ‘citywide’ lockdown, something officials said it wouldn’t do. They get around this by locking down the city in two phases, first the east side and then the west. Which means that starting April 1st, my district will go into an even stricter lockdown, on top of being stuck in our complex for the last 2, going on 3 weeks. The metal barricades are now at the exit gate, before this a few cleared cars could exit and re-enter with a rope strewn across. Now it seems we’re are legitimately shut in.

It’s just bizarre really, we haven’t been able to leave for weeks and we’ve tested negative more than enough times. And still, people stare at us, walk further away and shout “MASK!” - as if we are the infectious super spreaders. If we were positive, we wouldn’t be here, we would have been whisked away to quarantine. You can feel the animosity and it's not the kind of welcome I was hoping for from the locals into their culture. It’s unfortunate really, but I try to keep an open mind and brush off the sour energy that is sometimes projected towards us. It’s been a strange two years hasn’t it?

Government aid

Today they brought around some groceries to each resident, this was a pleasant surprise and reassuring that people are aware of the situation. We live in a massive apartment complex, I would estimate a couple thousand live here. Because of the lockdowns, grocery stores are closed, deliveries are limited and people across the city are panic buying- most shelves are empty and stock is sold out.

It has actually begun to become difficult to get food. While we are not in a truly dire situation yet, I do feel extremely limited in access to some of our most basic needs- food, water and hygienic items. Just this morning, I am counted how many eggs we have to account for what we could eat in the coming week. I never imagined I would be in a situation where I was rationing my own food.

Lockdown back home

We’ve experienced a version of this already, back home and back in 2020, at the peak of panic over the virus. Though, let’s be honest our western lockdowns didn’t look like this. It’s obviously different, there’s a lot more uncertainty- being a foreigner, were not as well informed or connected to what’s being said. The Chinese government also isn’t as transparent as those back home and they don’t seem to be telling anyone what’s really going on or how long it will last. We’re all just dealing with it as it comes. Lastly, of course China has measures of control that do not exist in the west. I’ve experienced both UK and US lockdowns- this one is by far the most restrictive.

• Madeline
  

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