Coronavirus: Shanghai faces exodus of talent as lockdown dashes workers’ hopes for good jobs and a better life
- Complicated and lengthy procedures have failed to put off those determined to flee the mainland’s commercial and financial centre
- Shanghai, which went into a citywide lockdown on April 1, plans to ease draconian pandemic curbs from June 1
Shanghai is facing an exodus of talent and labour as thousands of people leave the pandemic-hit city which has been in total lockdown since April 1, knocked by worries that local authorities will backtrack from plans to switch to normal virus control measures in June after achieving a societal zero-Covid goal.
At the city’s Hongqiao railway station, passengers have to queue up for two hours before they can even access the terminal. Those who plan on leaving need to show train tickets, approval letters from sub-district authorities and negative nucleic reports within 48 hours of their journey, before gaining permission to enter the terminal.
A rapid antigen test is also required at the security checkpoints.
But the complicated and lengthy procedures have failed to put off those determined to flee the mainland’s commercial and financial centre, once the envy of the nation, following almost eight weeks of strict lockdown to combat a severe outbreak of Covid-19.
“There is a big question mark over Shanghai’s plan to lift the lockdown in June,” said Tom Ye, who left Shanghai for his hometown of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, on Thursday. “I was determined to leave even though the journey turned out to be painful.”