Chinese President Xi Jinping’s "COVID zero" strategy has become notorious internationally for its grueling lockdowns. But in the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, signs of China’s signature pandemic policy disrupting daily life are hard to find.
Tourists snapped selfies at an ancient fortress while hundreds of partygoers packed into a gay bar this week, with barely a mask in sight. Ride-hailing-app users hopped into Didi Global cars to escape the city’s 40-degree Celsius heat wave without scanning contact-tracing apps, unlike in Beijing. Domestic travelers poured into the city, which mostly doesn’t require quarantine on arrival.
Chongqing has logged just 165 cases of COVID-19 since February 2021, the fourth-lowest of any province — the manufacturing hub twice the size of Switzerland counts as its own municipality, as do Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. The city hasn’t seen a major lockdown since early 2020, even as Beijing and Shanghai stay on high alert and more than 28 million people were living under citywide restrictions as of Monday, according to Bloomberg’s Lockdown Tracker.